Snowy Arachnid
by Kyandi-Akatensei
Summary: The location, Class 3-E, the job, kill Korosensei before graduation. What once had been a normal, if not awful, day to day existence, now has become something strange and joining this growing crew of strangeness is a girl who creeps around like a spider on its web, awaiting its prey. A snowy arachnid.
1. Welcome To Class 3-E

_**Summary:**_ The location, Class 3-E, the job, kill Korosensei before graduation. What once had been a normal, if not awful, day to day existence, now has become something strange and joining this growing crew of strangeness is a girl who creeps around like a spider on its web, awaiting its prey. A snowy arachnid.

Author Note: Hello, everyone! For those of you who know me, good to see you again! For those of you who don't know me, just call me Kyandi-sama. I originally came across the anime by chance and asked my little sister to download the episodes for me. Unknown to me, until I watched the first of the episodes she got me...she had only gotten from episode 14 up. So, even not knowing what the hey was going on, I still loved it. And thus Takina came to be. So, yeah, compliments are greatly appreciated, constructive criticism is thanked, but please, don't flame me. If you feel like you must flame me...walk away. Save us both a lot of time and just walk away, please and thank you! So, with that, please enjoy and review. I do not own Assassination Classroom.

Chapter 1 Welcome to Class 3-E

Class 3-E of Kunugigaoka Junior High School.

Home of the rejects and delinquents.

Those of Class 3-E fall within the five percent of students that have fallen so far behind in the educational world that there's deemed to be no recovery for them. As such, they are ostracized and sent off campus to a building set at the top of a mountain where they can't be seen or heard by the other students. There, they are left to rot into educational oblivion.

That was before the appearance of a very odd teacher.

Once a class of rejects, 3-E is now a class of assassination.

And the target is their sensei, Korosensei.

During the time since Korosensei had taken over, a lot had changed in E Class. The first being how the class ran. Grades became something that all of them, well most, began to strive for. The second would be the arrival of a particularly devious classmate, Karma. And the third would be the addition of two new teachers, Karasuma and Irina.

For the most part, since the arrival of their new English teacher, the class had fallen into a somewhat norm. Well, as normal as it got in their class. Today found the class outside, running through drills with Karasuma. The whole time, Korosensei sat off to the side, moping and pouting because he feared that Karasuma was replacing him as the favorite teacher.

After a few weeks of this, the students had learned to ignore his pouting.

It wasn't until after they had finished their drills and were about to be dismissed to their next class that Karasuma decided to inform them of an upcoming change in their class arrangement. Standing before them as they sat on the grass, waiting to hear what he had to say, Karasuma didn't beat about the bush.

"We have a new student joining us today." he informed the class.

At first, the students merely exchanged looks before Isogai raised his hand to ask the question that they were pretty much all thinking.

"Sir, when you say new student, its not going to be a student like our last new teacher, is it?" Isogai asked.

"As far as I know, this is a normal student just like the rest of you. All I know is that this student was deemed deserving of being cast into E Class despite having just transferred to the school." Karasuma told them.

"Seriously!? Wonder what they did to deserve that." Meahara remarked.

Several of the others begun to whisper back and forth, theorizing on what this new student could have done to land themselves in E Class from the get-go. Karasuma silenced them all with a raise of his hand. When they fell silent is when they heard Irina chattering away as she grew closer. Karasuma looked up.

"Here she comes." he remarked.

Everyone twisted on the spot. What they saw, walking along side Irina, was enough to, at least, make a few of the boys stare.

The girl walking towards them, her school bag hanging over one shoulder and a black, leather jacket in her other hand, was what one would classified as a teenage Ice Queen. She was so fair skinned that it was impossible for her to be Japanese and the waist length hair that was as white as freshly fallen snow, only confirmed that. Bangs hung down to her cheekbones, cut to hang over her left eye only. Even her eyebrows and eyelashes were white. Several of them instantly thought she had to be an albino...if it wasn't for her eyes.

Ringed by long, white lashes, her eyes were a color between mint green and turquoise. It was the sort of eye color that could possibly change colors depending on her mood or what she wore. At the moment, they were a sea blueish-green in color and they appeared half lidded. Idly, as if she had all the time in the world, they scanned her surroundings, never once staying still.

For a teenager, she was well endowed, her body curved in all the right places, her legs long, her heart shaped face pretty with full lips and a small nose. It was a little difficult to see a middle schooler when looking at her. Then again, if she really wasn't Japanese, it wasn't all that strange. She had clad that body in the school uniform, but she had added her own touches to it. She wore boots instead of the school issued shoes, had added thigh-high, aqua blue stockings and a chain belt around her waist, didn't wear the blazer or vest, wore her shirt untucked with the first two buttons undone, and wore her bow loose. She even wore gloves that looked like they usually reached all the way to her biceps but she had rolled them down to her wrists.

She walked with a sort of light footed sway to her body, something that spoke of someone who was naturally light on their feet and was use to walking in a way to draw attention to all she had. As Irina talked, she listened, adding a nod here and a single word response there. She seem perfectly content to let Irina do all the talking.

"All of you are dismissed. I have to speak with her before she joins the class." Karasuma told the other students.

While most of the students wanted to talk to the new girl, they did as told, passing the girl as Karasuma and Korosensei joined the girl. Some stopped to watch the girl as Korosensei greeted her, holding out a tentacle for a handshake. As the girl's eyes scanned Korosensei, finally landing on his face, her eyes shifted in shade to a color closer to teal, an intrigued look falling on her face. Several held their breathes as she reached out to shake Korosensei's tentacle. After Karma and his greeting on his first day, they wondered if maybe she might pull something too.

But as she grasped the tentacle, nothing happened.

Even Korosensei seemed to release a breath when nothing happened. Since there seemed to be nothing of interest for them to watch, the students returned to the building, changing and returning to the class. When they were gone, Karasuma lead the girl and his two fellow teachers back to the building.

"I assume you are aware that what goes on in this class is classified." Karasuma remarked, glancing back at the girl as she followed quietly.

"Yes, sir. I am aware." Karasuma turned to look back at her. Her voice was soft, calm, and carried a little bit of an accent, her eyes having reverted back to their default sea blueish-green. Apparently, her eyes changed with her mood. "I assure you, you have my silence."

"Good." Karasuma replied.

The other students were already returning to their seats by the time Karasuma and Korosensei had run their new student through the rules and operation of the class and walked in through the door with her. Korosensei stood behind his desk, the girl standing between Karasuma and Irina.

"Class, this is our new student, Itamatsu Takina." Korosensei said, introducing the girl. "Would you like to say a few things about yourself, Itamatsu?"

"Not really much to say. I prefer to be called by my given name, though, if you all don't mind." Takina said.

"Well, of course, if that's what you prefer." Korosensei told her.

"Thank you." Takina said, bowing her head. Turning, she bowed to the class as well. "It is a pleasure to meet you all."

"Very good." Korosensei said as she straightened up. "You can take a seat in the open desk in the back, beside Karma."

Takina gave a polite nod of her head and retreated to the desk pointed out. She draped her jacket over the back of the chair before taking a seat. Crossing her legs, she leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms loosely over her stomach. With her in her seat, Karasuma and Irina retreated out of the classroom, Korosensei getting on with his lesson.

After the hi-jinks of their last new classmate, several curious gazes made their way to Takina throughout the lesson, but Takina never once made a move against Korosensei. In fact, she didn't even seem to pay much attention to the lesson. Every time one of them glanced at her, she was staring off into space, her eyes having shifted to a color closer to cobalt blue.

Karma, who had glanced at her a few times, had a feeling that the cobalt blue meant she was bored.

She looked bored, that was sure.

The only time she seemed to move or tune into the lesson was when Nakamura tried to take a shot at Korosensei when his back was turned, only to fail in her attempt. Even then, Takina only focused in on the event until Korosensei started scolding Nakamura, then her eyes returned to the windows. She seemed content to remain quiet, probably thinking, even in their class, that the whole "never heard, never seen" rule would work.

As soon as school was over and Takina stood to collect her things, the girls in the class swarmed her. At first, Takina stiffened, freezing on the spot like an animal that suddenly found themselves surrounded on all sides. She blinked back at the smiling faces around her for a moment before she relaxed once more. The moment she relaxed, she was hit with so many questions, it had her head whipping from side to side as she tried to follow who was talking. Finally, she held up her hands, putting a stop to the questions.

"I'd love to answer your questions, but I have to hurry home to meet movers with the rest of my things. I apologize, but can this wait until tomorrow?" Takina asked as she pulled her jacket on.

She apologized once more before grabbing her bag and heading for the door. The others watched her as she bid Korosensei a polite goodbye as she headed out of the door. She was polite enough, but seemed to be the type that was a bit of a busy-body. She was gone so quickly, they barely caught sight of the trailing ends of her white hair as she sailed around the corner.

"Well...she was gone quick." Nakamura remarked.

"Do you think she's shy?" Kayano asked.

Whether or not that was the case, it wasn't like they didn't have tomorrow to get to know her.

-0-0-0-0-

The next morning, Takina was one of the first to the classroom and was sitting in her desk, reading, when the last few students trailed into class. Since she seemed so enthralled in her book, everyone left her alone. As classes started, Takina returned to her previous position from the day before; legs crossed, leaned back in her seat, and eyes glued to the windows.

Come time for gym, Takina joined the rest of the class, dressed in the gym outfit but with the jacket tied around her waist and wearing a tank top instead of a t-shirt. As the other students were set about their teamed drills, Takina tied her hair back. She had just secured her hair when Karasuma turned to her.

"Itamatsu." he called. Takina turned towards him, looking up at him in questioning. Karasuma approached her, eyeing the other students. "I want you to pair up with one of the girls and show me what you know as far as basic self-defense goes."

Takina's eyes narrowed slightly, her irises turning the sharp shade of arctic blue that made her eyes even more vivid. She didn't seem too key on the idea.

"To be perfectly honest, Mr. Karasuma, I don't think that's a good idea." Takina replied.

"Oh? And why is that?" Karasuma asked.

Takina heaved a sigh, crossing her arms. Explaining why wasn't something she really wanted to do. Glancing towards the other students who were failing at trying not to look like they were all listening in, one corner of Takina's mouth tugged down. She turned her eyes back to Karasuma.

"If you want to see what I know as far as self-defense goes, then fine. But, sir, if you're going to pair me up with anyone, I prefer it be one of the boys." Takina told him.

"One of the boys?" Karasuma repeated, confused.

He glanced over Takina's form once more. The girl wasn't the biggest among the girls. Kataoka, as the tallest girl in the class, topping off of five foot, seven, had a good three or so inches on Takina and Hara had, at least, fifteen to twenty pounds on her. As far as frame went, Takina was more curves and leg length than she was anything else. She didn't look like she had an ounce of muscle on her.

That being said, the look in her eyes was serious, the color of said eyes shifting to a neon green in shade. It wasn't a show of bravado, but the honest truth. Karasuma thought about it for a moment before letting out a low sigh. He turned, his eyes scanning the boys. Out of the boys, there were few who would take the spar seriously but wouldn't go over board and needlessly hurt Takina. After all, she didn't have the training the others already had under their belts.

There were only two guys in the class that he was sure would take the spar serious without over doing it. Turning towards Maehara and Isogai, Karasuma called out Maehara.

"Maehara." Maehara looked up when Karasuma called out to him. "You spar with her."

Maehara looked uncomfortable as the other students cleared out of the way to make room for Takina and him. He nervously looked Takina over as he stood face to face with her. Takina, on the other hand, seemed calm as she adjusted the gloves on her hands. Once she was sure they were snuggled tight on her hands, she turned her eyes to Maehara.

"You can attack whenever you feel like it." she told him.

"Even if you say that..." Maehara tailed off, his eyes shifting to the side.

"Alright then...I'll come to you."

Maehara opened his mouth to protest, but Takina was already moving.

And move she did.

To the shock of those watching, before Maehara could react, Takina was standing at his right side. In one hand, she grabbed his right bicep, in the other, she grabbed the waist band of his pants. Her left foot quickly snaked out then, sliding behind his feet before rocketing up to collide with the back of his knees, making them buckle. With him off balance, she planted her feet and used his body's motion to swing him around off his feet...and toss him over her hip.

Jaws dropped as Maehara landed on the ground, hard on his back. Takina didn't stop there. Without giving Maehara the time to breathe, let alone collect himself and launch his own attack, she pounced on him. Maehara rolled out of the way, avoiding the knee that would have hit him in the gut if he hadn't moved at the last second. He rolled to his feet as Takina popped back to hers. He dodged the right handed jab she launched to his left shoulder by stepping to the right, only to find out that it was been a feint.

Maehara tried to block the next hit, but Takina slid one foot between his feet, drawing his attention down to her feet. This gave her the opening land an open palm strike right to Maehara's gut. Maehara crumpled to the ground, gripping his stomach as he gagged. Had gym been after lunch instead of before it, he was sure he would have puked up his whole lunch. As it was, he still wasn't sure he wasn't going to throw up.

He definitely wasn't going to be getting up to continue the spar anytime soon.

Seeing this, Karasuma called the spar to an end. He was pleasantly surprised to find that Takina already knew how to fight, using slight of hand moves to redirect attention and open up her opponent up for a strike. Takina was no newbie to hand-to-hand combat.

"That's enough." Karasuma called out.

Hearing him call the spar to an end, Takina relaxed, her eyes shifting from neon green back to their default sea blue-green. Bending over, she offered Maehara a hand up.

"Sorry about that. Old habits die hard and when I saw the opening, I just reacted." she told Maehara.

Maehara took her hand, allowing her to help him back to his feet, though he was sure he was going to be walking around slumped over for a while. Takina apologized again, but he waved her off, claiming that he was fine, though she knew he was full of it.

"Itamatsu." Takina turned as Karasuma neared her, eyeing her closely. "Where did you learn that?"

"My father, sir." Takina replied. When he gave her a questioning look, she explained. "I live alone, sir. My father lives with my step-mother far away from here and my birth mother died when I was very young. I've basically been left to live my life how I wish since I was twelve. The only thing my father insisted on was that I learn how to defend myself, so I've been in self-defense classes basically since I could walk. He even runs his own self-defense school and has been very strict with my upbringing. It's why I wasn't overly concerned when I was informed on the special situation of Class 3-E."

"So wait, you're like some MMA badass!?" Okajima blurted out.

"I wouldn't put it like it that, but mixed martial arts was one of the classes my father put me through. But it's not like that means I'll always win a fight. Despite all the training, I lack physical strength. I was only able to flip him because his body was already falling. It was basic laws of leverage after that." Takina replied.

"And the gut shot?" Maehara asked as Isogai pat his back.

"Simple. At our age, your stomach muscles aren't fully developed. I didn't take you as a weight lifter type, so I was pretty sure that you wouldn't have an overly toned stomach. With that, it was common sense that the gut was going to be a weak point for you." Takina replied.

Not that it made Maehara feel any better.

Karasuma stared at Takina for a moment. Whether she had physical strength or not, she was quick and decisive, taking advantage of misdirection and applying things like laws of physics and knowledge of the human anatomy to her fighting style to make up for her short comings. She would still need training, just like the others, but unlike the others, the ground work had already been laid.

Teaching her would be interesting.

But there was something else that caught his attention.

"Itamatsu, you said you live alone?" Karasuma asked.

"Yes, sir."

"Then where is your father?"

"Switzerland, sir."

Silence reigned for a moment, everyone staring at Takina. Takina turned, looking around at the others, raising an eyebrow at their looks.

"What? You couldn't tell that I'm not Japanese?" she asked. "I mean, I don't look Japanese."

"Well, yeah, but...your name is Japanese." Isogai pointed out.

"My birth mother was Japanese. Takina is my middle name and Itamatsu was my birth mother's maiden name. It seemed more fitting than my birth name." Takina replied.

"Wait a minute, so your dad let you move all the way to another country...by yourself?" Kataoka asked.

"He doesn't have a say. I'm basically emancipated. I have legal liability and independence." Takina crossed her arms as she spoke, as if awkward about the whole thing. "Can we move away from the subject. My relationship with my father is rocky at best."

The subject, as she asked, was dropped, though between Takina's hand-to-hand combat training and her legal independence, it made her a particularly unique student to have. She could train and take part in assassination attempts, all without having to worry about a legally responsible adult hovering over her. The others had to hide their double lives as students and assassins from their families. Takina didn't have that worry.

Continuing on with training, Karasuma assigned Takina to running drills with Maehara and Isogai. Karasuma learned quickly that Takina's choice style of fighting relied on misdirecting her opponent's attention in order to land quick and decisive attacks and when she did land that final blow, she wasn't fooling around.

Especially when she was fighting against more than a single opponent. Since she did, in fact, lack physical strength, she put down an opponent as fast as she could. This usually involved a low and painful attack.

Poor Maehara found this out quickly.

When Maehara grabbed her from behind to make an opening for Isogai, Takina reacted without thinking and without hesitation, aiming a downward, back swinging fist for the only body part sure to make him release her. As he dropped to the ground, curling in on himself, Takina apologized, but that wasn't going to make his aching nether regions feel better.

"I think that's enough for today." Karasuma said, feeling a little sympathy for Maehara.

"I'm sorry, Maehara." Takina repeated.

"It'll be fine. Just remind me never to sneak up on you." Maehara told her, trying to joke away the pain. Then something else caught his attention. "Wait...you already know my name?"

"Of course. I memorized the class roster before I even started class." Takina replied. When she got only questioning looks, she shrugged her shoulders. "It's a new school, new classmates, new town, new _**country**_. I'm trying my best here not to be a jerky lone wolf in class."

"Aw~! You're so cute, Takina!" Nakamura teased, grin on her face.

Takina turned her back to Nakamura, crossing her arms.

"I highly doubt that." she replied.

"Aw, but you are! We didn't know you cared so much about our opinions." Nakamura said as she slung an arm around Takina's shoulders.

"I'm done." Takina announced, shrugging off Nakamura's arm and walking away towards the classroom. "If this is what honesty gets me...totally not worth it."

The others laughed as they followed her, Nakamura catching up with Takina to sling her arm around her shoulders once more. Karasuma brought up the rear, Korosensei joining him.

"I see we've added an interesting member to our class. It's good to see her get along with the others." Korosensei remarked.

"She's interesting, that's for sure, but taking on training someone who is already versed in hand-to-hand combat, it quite a task. There's bound to be bad habits she's learned that I'm going to have to reteach her." Karasuma replied.

Already, he knew he was going to have to up her muscle training. While she seemed to do pretty well in a fight now, she couldn't continue on with so little physical strength. With the right amount of training, she wouldn't have to rely upon laws of physics or employing a lever in order to throw an opponent.

It would take time, but it wasn't an impossible task.

-0-0-0-0-

When lunch rolled around, Takina found herself pulled into having lunch with several of the other girls. Before coming to Japan, Takina hadn't been a social person. She certainly had never had female friends before, so it was a little strange for her to be drawn into a group so easily. She didn't contribute much as far as conversation went, but she was still pleasant to have around.

Karma didn't completely agree.

He had been watching her since her unexpected defeat of Maehara earlier in the day. He had watched the way she walked, how she interacted with the others and with Korosensei. While Takina seemed perfectly relaxed and at ease with everyone, Karma didn't miss the look in her eyes. Whenever the others weren't looking, Takina's color changing eyes obtained a sharpness to them that Karma had only seen in the eyes of a predator with their prey in sight. It was gone almost as soon as Takina perceived someone to be looking.

It was just little flashes, here and there. Mostly it only showed itself when she was watching Korosensei. It was like the girl was hyper focused on him, looking for openings, listing tells, and studying her target with all the practiced focus of someone who was use to doing this.

As the school day progressed, Karma watched her. It didn't take him long to realize that behind that cool exterior, there was a razor sharp mind just waiting to be put to use. It put a grin on Karma's face when he realized...she was like him in that aspect. There was one point, though he didn't know it, that she caught him staring at her. After school, she called him out on it.

Karma had just said his partings to his other classmates, Takina having left before him, and was just walking out of the building when she spoke up.

"Do I fit your type, or are you just fond of staring at people?"

Karma turned, finding Takina leaning against the side of the building just to one side of the doorway. Her arms were crossed as she watched him past her bangs and her eyes had taken on a sage green shade. Karma couldn't quite gauge what she was feeling.

"Maybe it's both." Karma replied, teasing her.

"Hate to break it to you, but you couldn't handle me." Takina said as she pushed herself away from the wall.

"I don't know, I'm pretty tough." Karma told her.

"So I've heard. Only my second day and I've already heard an alarming number of stories about you, Akabane." Takina said, brushing past him.

As her shoulder brushed him, she bumped her hip into his, causing him to take a few steps back. Crossing her arms, her eyes scanned him.

"You could be tougher than steel, it wouldn't matter. Take is from me...you can't handle me. And if you're going to stare, try not to make it so obvious. You'll make people think you're a stalking fanboy." she told him.

Karma might have felt the need to feel annoyed, if it wasn't for the teasing grin that lift one corner of her mouth. With that, she turned on her heel and started walking away.

Karma found that he kind of liked this girl. She was interesting, to say the least. Most people were wary of him and tended to keep their distance or never turn their backs on him. Takina didn't seem to care one bit. With this in mind, he followed her off down the trail that led to the base of the mountain. Nagisa, already deep in conversation with Sugino, joined him.

For the whole trip down, no matter what they said or how loud they got, Takina kept a steady distance ahead of them, never once turning to look at them. She pulled a book out of her bag and started reading, probably too focused on it to even bother noticing that they were right behind her. When they reached the bottom, heading off towards the train station, they passed a few other students, these ones from the main campus. Those students stared at Takina as she passed them, completely ignoring Karma, Nagisa, and Sugino.

"Look, it must be the new E-class dumbass we heard about." one remarked.

"All looks, no brains. I heard she got kicked directly to E-class." another added.

"Really? Then how did she even pass the entrance exam?" asked the third.

No matter what the gawking students said, Takina continued forward, eyes glued to her book, as if she couldn't hear a single word said around her. Then one of the boys bad mouthing her, stepped right in her path, purposely knocking her book out of hands. Takina came to a screeching halt, her now empty hand falling to hang at her side. Her eyes turned up, the sage green color going along with the slightly curious look on her face.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see you there. I must have mistaken you for a pile of dirt!" the boy sneered.

Takina, without a word, simply bent and retrieved her book from the ground. Dusting off the cover, she found and marked her place before closing the book and tucking it into the protective curl of one arm. Only once that was done, did she turn her attention back to the boy in front of her. By this point, Karma, Nagisa, and Sugino were watching intently, Sugino and Nagisa ready to jump in if it went south. Karma had a good feeling that that wouldn't be the case.

Not unless the boy facing Takina had the balls to touch her.

Takina seemed far too relaxed, her stance betraying nothing but calmness. If anything, one of her hips shifted outward, showing a bit of confidence in her calmness, as if she was well aware that the boy in front of her was all talk and no action.

"A pile of dirt, huh? My, my, someone seems to be losing their eyesight in their growing idiocy." Takina replied simply, slipping around him and patting his shoulder, as if expressing her sympathies for his "condition". "No worries. Glasses can correct half of that issue. As for the other half...I'm afraid a tiny brain is simply a tiny brain. No fixing that."

The boy rounded on Takina, mouth gaping open in shock, as she walked away, already popping her book back open. Karma couldn't help a chuckle as he watched the scene. Most members of E-class, before the arrival of Korosensei, had shied away from confrontation with students from the main campus. E-class was there in order to promote the success of the other classes. They were suppose to serve as stepping stones for the rest of the student body. That meant taking all the harassing and teasing of the students from the main campus, and not doing or saying anything in return.

Once again, Takina didn't care.

"She knows she's going to catch hell for that later, right?" Sugino asked as they continued on their way to the train station.

"I don't think she cares." Nagisa replied. "Where she comes from, they probably don't have school systems like the one here."

Karma didn't think that was the point here. To him, it just seemed like Takina didn't care what others thought of her. It had nothing to do with whether or not she was familiar with the situation, but more to do with the fact that Takina just didn't give a crap. When it came down to it, to her, it was probably all ridiculousness. Karma had a feeling that, on the inside, she laughed about the whole set-up of the school.

Gods knew he had more than once.

END

Author Note: And with that, the first chapter is done. Normally, when I do new stories, I tend to put up the first two or three chapters in order to give you all a good taste of my OC. So, with that said, I'm going to go get the next chapter ready. So, everyone, enjoy and review. I'll be right back. Bye-bye.


	2. Discrimination

Kyandi: And thus I returned! Typically, I start off, and end, my chapters with character interactions. With that said, everyone, say hi to my OC, Takina. Greet them, please.

Takina: Hey, everyone.

Kyandi: Takina is, usually, pretty chill.

Takina: I have my sarcastic moments.

Kyandi: Not with me, you don't. Please don't change that.

Takina: I will try.

Kyandi: Good, let's move on! Everyone, enjoy and review.

Takina: Kyandi-sama does not own Assassination Classroom.

Chapter 2 Discrimination

The next morning found Nagisa awaiting his train to school. As usual, the morning was full of people crowding onto the platform. Some were, like him, off to school, while others were commuting to work. How anyone could find someone they knew in the crowd, was beyond Nagisa.

But **she** somehow managed it.

"Oh, hey. Good morning."

Nagisa looked up when someone laid a hand on his shoulder. Turning, he was met with the sea blue-green gaze of Takina. When he was facing her, she waved, giving him her morning greeting.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm still trying to remember names, but you're Nagisa, right?" she asked.

"Yeah. Good morning to you, too, Itamatsu." he replied. "And I thought you said you had fully memorized the class."

Takina cringed, her hand dropping back to her side. He figured out pretty quickly why she had reacted that way. It was only seeing her cringe that he remembered her words her first day in class.

"I wish you would call me by my given name and not my family name." she remarked.

"Right. Sorry about that."

Takina simply waved it off before turning her eyes back to the tracks ahead of them. Idly, she draped her school bag over her shoulder, ignoring the stares of those around her. Nagisa figured that, given her appearance, she was use to some people staring.

"As for what I said...it's true I've memorized it, but that's seating order, you know, who sits where. I'm still working on putting those names to faces." she told him idly. "That aside, I didn't know we had the same stop."

"Yeah, talk about coincidence." he agreed.

"You know...I think we live in the same building, too. Or, at least, there's a Shiota living a few doors down from me." Takina said.

Nagisa turned a surprised look on her. He knew someone had moved in a few doors down from him, but after hearing that Takina lived alone and fended for herself, he had assumed it wasn't her simply because the building he lived in wasn't exactly cheap.

"Whoa, really? You're the one that moved in two doors down? How can you even afford that place?" Nagisa asked.

"My family is pretty well off. My father and step-mother make a great living and my birth mother was from a wealthy family. After her passing, I, as her only living family, inherited a decent amount of money, which I used to move myself here and currently live off of. That being said, despite having legal independence from my father, he still tries to "help" me." Takina replied, putting air quotes around the word 'help'. "He puts money into my savings account and we both pretend not to know a thing."

"Seems like he really cares about you." Nagisa remarked.

"In his own way, I suppose so. No matter how we fight or what he does, he really does love me in his own somewhat twisted way. After all, he is my father. It's just...living with him is impossible. The way he gets some times is just too much. Do you know what I mean?" Takina asked.

"Yeah...yeah I do."

To Nagisa, it sounded like his relationship with his mother. The difference between them was that Takina had managed to get away from her father. She had left, giving herself the room she needed in order to breathe freely. He was still trapped in his mother's home. From the look on Takina's face as she glanced at him, she could tell he really did understand.

"Let me guess...your mom is the same way?"

Nagisa turned a surprised look on her. She gave his questioning look a shrug in reply.

"I can tell, by your expression, that you know, from experience, what living with a parent like that is like. I figured it was your mother because, no offense, no straight guy would wear his hair like your's. I figured it was more of your mom's choice than your's. She wanted a girl, right?"

Nagisa was both impressed and shocked by just how correct she was. She had gotten all of that in just a few days!? The girl obviously paid more attention to those around her than their classmates had given her credit for.

"Man, you're sharp." Nagisa replied.

"My father drilled me with the belief that vigilance was what stands between life and death. After so long of hearing that, I've fallen into the habit of always observing my surroundings." Takina told him.

At that time, their train was pulling to a stop at the platform. Making sure not to lose each other in the crowd, they quickly boarded the train and found seats.

"That's actually kind of scary. If you picked up on that much about me in just a few days, I'm afraid to know what you got on the others." Nagisa joked.

"I'm not a stalker or anything. I'm just good at reading people sometimes. I'll never use it against you, I swear. What happens in your life is none of my business unless you want it to be." Takina assured him.

At least she was considerate enough to think about how he would feel about others knowing about his mother and how she was. Which he was extremely grateful for.

"Thanks." he told her.

To his surprise, Takina smiled at him. Takina actually had a really pretty smile. It was soft, unlike the usually neutral look that she normally had on her face.

"Think nothing of it. Hey, would you mind if we started walking to school together? After all, we do live almost directly next door to each other." she remarked.

"Sure."

Nagisa was glad to see that Takina was capable of reaching out to others. The last few days, she had been pretty quiet in class. Maybe it was something about being around more than one person. With just him, she didn't seem to have any issues with chatting. A few stops into their trip, Nagisa looked up, knowing it was Karma's stop. Sure enough, a familiar head of red got onto the train.

"Karma!"

Karma looked up when Nagisa called to him, raising an arm so he would see him. Slipping between people, Karma joined them, his eyes falling to Takina, who raised a hand in greeting.

"You two look comfortable." Karma teased.

"Don't go there. We have the same stop." Nagisa remarked.

Karma simply grinned in return.

With the train getting more crowded by the second, the three of them switched from their seats, to standing in a space near the doors so they wouldn't have to try to wade through the crowd in order to get off at the school's stop. Takina stood between her two classmates, chatting with them as they watched the scenery outside the window pass them by. Nagisa was in the middle of saying something when Takina, her eyes shifting to an electric blue in color, suddenly made a face, her nose wrinkling and her lips tugging into a heavy frown.

"Takina? What's wrong?" Nagisa asked.

"Someone is feeling up my back side." Takina said lowly, her face getting even more fierce by the moment.

Nagisa and Karma, without being too obvious about it, tilted their heads back to glance back. Sure enough, there was a middle aged man behind them, his hand stretched out towards Takina's butt. He was doing a good job at not making it obvious, his back to them, but from where they stood, Karma and Nagisa could see everything.

"What is the penalty for murder in Japan?" Takina suddenly asked her two friends.

"It's a capital punishment, why?" Nagisa asked.

"I'm seriously about to risk it. His fingers are going under my skirt."

While Karma would have found it amusing to see her attack the man, doing so on a crowded train wasn't the best idea. With that in mind, he quickly inserted himself between the man and Takina, smacking the man's hand aside with his school bag. The man turned a dark look on Karma, but when confronted with the challenging grin on Karma's face, which was just begging the man to do something, he backed down, turning back around quickly.

Karma was sure that the man was probably hoping that he would move away from where he now stood between him and Takina, so he could continue to touch her butt, so Karma stayed where he was, turning around so he stood just behind Takina.

"What are you doing back there?" she asked.

"Keeping the nasty, old perverts from touching you, of course." Karma teased.

Takina glanced over her shoulder at him. He could tell from the way her lips were tugging up at the corners, that she was amused by him, if not the situation.

"You know, I think I feel more uncomfortable with **you** behind me." she joked.

"Oh? I think I'll hang out here for a while, then." Karma replied.

Nagisa couldn't help the smile on his face as Takina turned her head back around, shaking it. For the rest of the ride to school, Karma remained just a few inches behind Takina, deterring anyone else from attempting to touch Takina. When they got off the train, Takina patted out the back of her skirt, a frown on her face.

"You know, I heard stories around girls getting groped on trains before I came to this country, but I just thought it was a baseless stereotype." Takina remarked as they entered the school grounds and headed for the trail that lead up the mountain to their classroom.

"I've never seen it happen, but I've heard plenty of girls say it's happened to them, at least once." Nagisa told her.

"Eck. Just what is so fascinating about grabbing a teenage girl's butt on a crowded train? It's so sleazy." Takina replied.

"Some guys get off on it." Karma remarked with a shrug of his shoulders.

"That's even sleazier. Ugh, now I feel like I need to go home, shower and change. And then burn this skirt and underwear."

The way Takina's nose wrinkled up as a shiver went up her spine, had the two boys smiling. Despite claiming it was sleazy, which it was, Takina seemed to waved it off and joke about it pretty easily thanks to Karma stepping in to help her. She simply claimed that, for then on, she would tied her jacket around her waist and stand with her back to a corner.

"Anyway, change of subject, please." Takina said finally.

Nagisa gladly did as requested.

"We have a school-wide assembly today." Nagisa remarked.

"An assembly? How, exactly, does that work for us in E-class?" Takina asked.

"They make us trek down the mountain during our lunch break and if we're late, we get in trouble." Nagisa told her.

"You know, I've noticed this from the start, but this school's values are seriously messed up." Takina remarked.

"Yeah, we know." Nagisa agreed.

"You can still transfer back out, if you really wanted to." Karma told her.

"And miss out on the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we're getting in E-class? Thanks, but no thanks. I can deal with a school of bullies. It won't be the first time I've had to deal with haters." Takina replied.

This put a wide grin on Karma's face. He was liking this girl more and more by the day.

"But you haven't made a single move against the octopus." Karma replied.

"I'm buying my time. Patience is a virtue, you know. I'll make a move on my own time and no one else's." Takina retorted.

"Which is another way of saying that you don't have a plan." Karma taunted.

"Yeah, I'm not rising to your bait, Akabane. I'm more mature than that." Takina replied.

By this point, the top of the trail had come into sight.

"Call me Karma."

"Yeah, I'm not doing that either."

With that, Takina sped up, leaving the two behind. She gave a flick of her long hair, the tips flicking Karma across the face, before she pulled ahead of them and vanished beyond the trees. Karma chuckled, more to himself.

Nagisa had a feeling that this was going to lead to the first of many competitions between Karma and Takina.

-0-0-0-0-

Come lunch time, the whole class, minus one, made the trip down the mountain to the main campus. Despite all the obstacles that stood in their way, they all managed to make it to the gymnasium with a few minutes to spare. Takina, the moment she stepped into the building, could tell the discrimination the other students had for her classmates. Several of her classmates walked into the building with their heads down, their eyes on the ground.

Takina refused to do that.

She put her chin in the air, held her head high, and strutted into the building like her step-mother had always taught her to, as if **she** owned the place and everyone else was only there because she let them be there. She wouldn't be cowed into staring at her feet the whole time.

Some of the students she passed, mostly girls, scoffed at her.

She didn't care.

Some of the students she passed, mostly boys, stared at her.

She didn't care.

All of the students she passed, judged her.

They could kiss her ass.

Takina didn't care anymore about what they thought of her than she cared around the dirt under her feet. They could think what they wanted, the judgy, spoiled brats. She had more important things in her life to concern herself with. So she ignored them all and took her place in line, awaiting the start of the assembly. While standing there, she could hear the other students from the other classes as they whispered to each other.

Most of it was taunting E-class, though she heard a few comments directed her way. Most of those about her was either guys commenting on her looks and focusing on body parts they would be better off not looking at if they valued their kneecaps. The other half was girls dissing her in some form or fashion. Apparently, as a foreign, decent looking girl, she was suddenly the bane of every girl on the main campus.

Talk about shallow.

Whether it was the boys or the girls, none of what they were saying was all that flattering. Which, she suppose, was about right, given how the school was set up. It was rather depressing of a thought that this was what the headmaster had to resort to in order to increase the success of the rest of the school's students. Looking around at her classmates, Takina could tell just how awful they felt.

And it only increased as the principal took the stage and begun talking.

"...In short, you are all elites selected from the best of the best nationwide. As your principal, I guarantee it. Still, pride is a powerful enemy. If you are negligent, you'll end up becoming like a certain group of hopeless someones." the principal said.

And all laughter became directed at E-class. Unlike her classmates, Takina refused to let her head drop. Letting her gaze fall to the ground would be like admitting defeat and that was something she refused to ever do. If anything, she lift her chin higher, even throwing a somewhat icy look at the students nearest to her. When her eyes landed on them, those laughing students fell silent. To those students her gaze fell on, it was like they had suddenly met the eyes of a killer who was daring them to laugh in her face while she twirled a blade in her hands.

It had many of those students looking away from her.

Somewhere behind her, Takina heard Sugaya lean forward to ask Nagisa a question.

"Nagisa, come to think of it, where's Karma?" Sugaya asked.

"Skipping. He said he's not coming to the assembly and doesn't care if he's punished for it. Getting good grades and behaving badly...It's times like these when I'm jealous of him." Nagisa replied.

"You shouldn't be." Nagisa leaned to the side, peering up the line towards Takina who turned slightly to look back at him. "One day, his lack of diligence and his laziness, will come back to bite him on the butt."

"Yeah, maybe." Nagisa somewhat agreed.

"Not maybe. The truth of the real world is that karma really can be a bitch. No pun intended."

With that, Takina turned back around to face the front. Nagisa watched her as she gave her hair a flick over her shoulder and confidently put her chin in the air. While he was jealous of Karma for his good grades and, therefore, his freedom to behave a little more as he wanted, he was also a little jealous of the self confidence that Takina let off with the very breath she breathed. The girl didn't even seem to care one bit what others said about her.

It was then that all attention shifted from the E-class students to Karasuma as he entered the building, joining the other teachers off to the side. Behind him came Irina. Much like how Takina had strutted into the building, Irina entered the room as if she owned the place, instantly drawing all eyes to her. She approached Nagisa where he stood in line, lowering her voice to request to see his notebook of weaknesses he was keeping on Korosensei. When Nagisa insisted that he didn't have anything new she could use, she squished his face into her breasts, threatening to suffocate him if he didn't hand over his notebook.

This little action instantly inspired nose bleeds in several boys of the other classes.

Takina shook her head as Karasuma managed to get Irina off of Nagisa. Takina leaned around those behind her to check on Nagisa while papers were being handed out to the students. Only...there weren't any for E-class. Isogai raised a hand, calling a stop to the student representative on stage.

"Excuse me. Class E hasn't gotten theirs yet." Isogai called out.

"Hm? You haven't? How strange. My bad~. It looks like I forgot to bring the ones for 3-E. Sorry, but please commit it all to memory before you leave. I mean, I think the people in Class E should also work on improving their memory." the rep sneered, obviously making fun of them.

Laughter rang out in the gym once more, the other students turning to point and mock them. If Takina had had any less control on her patience than she did, she might have said something she would later regret. That being said, she was able to take a deep breath and keep her expression calm. It didn't stop the slow change in her eye color from it's default sea blue-green to the electric blue that probably meant she was fuming on the inside.

Takina had just turned an icy look on the nearest line of students laughing at her when there was a sudden gust of air that had Takina raising a hand to pin her hair back. When she brought her hand back down, she found one of the handouts suddenly in her grip. Looking up and down the line of her class, she saw that each and every one of them suddenly had one of the handouts. A glance off to the side, with the other teachers, showed Takina how that came to be.

Korosensei was suddenly among the teacher wearing a fake nose, wig, and gloves to hide his less than human traits. The whole assembly seemed to fall apart for the other classes after that. With the other students' little joke on E-class ruined and with the hilarious display of Irina trying to kill Korosensei with a knife only to be detained and lead away, again, by Karasuma, the depressive air around E-class seemed to vanish.

Even Takina couldn't help but smile.

This didn't sit well with a couple of D-Class students. After the assembly was over, the students were released to head back to their classes.

"We're gonna go on ahead, Nagisa!" Sugino called to his friend.

"Okay. I'll come right after I buy some juice." Nagisa told him, turning to the nearest vending machine.

He was just leaning over to get his drink when he heard someone approach him. Looking up when his name was called, he found two D-class students behind him.

"You guys are kinda forgetting your place, aren't you?" one asked.

"Laughing it up during the assembly...just think about the trouble you caused for those around you." the second one added.

"Keep your eyes on the floor, where Class E belongs." the first added.

"After all, there's no hope for you anymore." the second agreed.

Off to the side, Karasuma, who was just leaving the gym, caught sight of Nagisa and the other two students. He turned to go put a stop to the obvious bullying, but Korosensei caught him by the shoulder, pulling him to a stop. Karasuma turned to him, noting that Korosensei's face had changed to the green stripes that meant he was feeling confident.

"The students who are trying to assassinate me won't be unnerved by the likes of those two." Korosensei assured him.

By the vending machines, one of the D-class students seized Nagisa by his tie, ramming him back against the wall.

"Say something, Class E! I'll kill you!" he threatened.

Which was probably the wrong thing to say to someone who was being trained to be an assassin. Just the word "kill" snapped Nagisa out of his meek silence and had him finally raising his eyes to look the other boy straight in the face. Slowly, a small grin curled Nagisa's lips and a chuckle left him.

"And yet it looks like you've never killed someone before." he remarked.

This instantly had the other boy releasing him, the two backing away from him. They only came to a stop when they bumped into the out stretched hands of someone else.

"Something going on here, boys?"

The two D-class students whipped around, Nagisa perking up in surprise when he recognized the voice. Standing there behind the two D-class students, was Takina. Takina had a serious look on her face, her eye color reflecting that serious with their neon green color. When it was clear that the two boys wouldn't be retreating any further back, she let her hands fall, settling for bracing them on her hips. She eyed both of the boys before fixing her eyes on Nagisa in questioning.

"Nagisa?" she asked.

"Nothing much." Nagisa assured her.

"Oh? Then can you two boys move it. You're in my way." Takina said, waving a hand at the two.

Both scrambled out of her way when she turned sharp looks on them, clearing the way for her. With them out of her way, she pulled money from her pocket, got a drink from the machine and turned to Nagisa.

"Shall we get going then?" she asked, giving Nagisa a smile.

"Yeah, sure." Nagisa agreed, smiling back.

Without paying the two boys another lick of attention, the two headed off, falling into an easy conversation as they passed Korosensei and Karasuma. The two teachers watched as their students continued on.

"See? It's because my students killing intent is different. Even Takina is already picking up on it." Korosensei told Karasuma.

Karasuma could see his point, though the second comment made Karasuma stop to think. Takina, only a few days into her time with the class, was picking up on the swing of things a lot quicker than a normal teenaged girl would. Either the girl had crazy adapting skills, or something wasn't quite right in her head.

Then again, both could be the same thing.

Whatever the case was, she was taking to the class like a fish to water. That could be a good thing, or it could be a bad thing.

Only time would tell.

-0-0-0-0-

"Now then. Shall we begin?"

Takina didn't even know where to look, let alone know where to begin. Sitting at the back of the classroom, Takina blinked, her eyes traveling around the room at the several Korosensei copies that currently took up the room, headbands around their heads marking what subject they would be teaching.

In the days following the school assembly, every class had begun to prepare for the upcoming midterm exams. Even E-class was being run through the ringer. Something that Takina could understand. While they were called the End-of-the-line class, it didn't mean they had to have the worst grades in the whole school.

"Midterm exams are approaching." Korosensei declared. "And so, this period, I shall conduct an intense high-speed study session. Sensei's duplicates will thoroughly go over each of your weak subjects individually, one-on-one."

It was a smart thing to do. Giving students one-on-one time in subjects they were weak in, was sometimes better than trying to go over with the whole class what one student was lacking. While Takina was fluent in English and Japanese, was well off in social studies and science, and excelled in math, her only weak spot was Home Ec. Despite living alone, she could only cook well enough to get by on.

She definitely was **not** going to be a chef in her future.

But because Science was her weakness core subject, it was what her duplicate of Korosensei went over. He was in the middle of explaining to her how to balance chemical equations when part of his head suddenly sunk inward. Surprised by the sudden change, Takina shifted her eyes around the room, trying to find out what was causing it, only to find that it was Karma who had tried to stab Korosensei. Frowning, Takina stretched out a foot, shoving Karma's chair hard enough to tip it over.

Karma crashed into the floor, drawing all attention back to him and Takina. Takina frowned down at Karma as he sat up, staring at her in surprise.

"Do us a favor and save your sadistic tendencies until after class. Some of us are actually trying to focus here." she told him.

Throwing her snowy hair over her shoulder, she turned back to her work, tucking her leg back under her desk. Karma wasn't actually happy with her tipping him over, but it also kind of amused him. No one else in class would have tried that trick. Takina, though, ignored him, turning back to Korosensei.

"You were saying, Korosensei?" she asked.

With the distraction of Karma and his knife, past, everyone went back to their studying. Takina walked away from the study lesson with a better grasp on science, but she felt like she could use a little more studying. When class was dismissed, Takina got to her feet, putting her books in her bag. Looking up, she caught sight of Kayano first.

"Hey, Kayano." Kayano turned when Takina called out to her. "I could use a little more study time. You want to come over to my place and be my study buddy?"

All noise in the classroom suddenly came to a stop. Since coming to the school, Takina hadn't invited anyone over, nor had she accepted anyone else's invites. To hear her suddenly invite someone over out of the blue...it had all those still in the classroom, pausing to stare. Takina looked around at the others, raising an eyebrow in questioning.

"What?" she asked.

"You're serious? You're actually inviting someone over?" Maehara asked.

"Yeah...why so shocked?" Takina replied.

"It's no offense to you, or anything, it just...you usually don't hang out with anyone. You come to school and you leave. That's it." Isogai explained.

"Oh, that. Yeah, sorry about that. I've only recently unpacked the last of boxes, so I've been busy and in no position to have anyone over, or to go over to anyone else's house." Takina replied.

"In that case, yeah, I'll come over!" Kayano said cheerfully.

"Great. I could use the study buddy." Takina said.

"If you need a study buddy that bad, I'd be happy to help." Karma remarked.

Takina turned to look at him. From the evil grin that was curling his lips, Takina was positive that his wanting to come over was more about nosing through her apartment and less about studying. And she voiced as much.

"I know I'm going to regret saying yes because I'm pretty positive you want to come over more to snoop around my house than to study." Takina remarked.

"Can't I do both?" Karma asked, trying to appear innocent and failing horribly.

"No, you can't. If I say yes and you so much as go near my bedroom, I'll throw you out my door myself." Takina warned him, only making his grin grow more.

"Can we come too!?" Okano asked, Nakamura behind her.

"I guess so." Takina replied, turning. "Sugino, you in?"

"Yeah, sure." Sugino called back.

"Alright, then let me catch Nagisa and see if he's up for it." Takina told the group.

With that, she threw her bag over her shoulder and headed for the door, telling the others that she would meet them outside. Takina caught Nagisa in the hall just as he was about to pass the teacher's lounge.

"Hey, Nagisa, wait for a moment."

Nagisa came to a stop, turning to look at Takina as she fell into step next to him.

"Oh, hey, Takina. What's up?" he asked.

"I've having a couple of others over for a study session at my place. Since you're just down the way, do you want to come too?" Takina asked.

"Yeah, sure. Sounds great. Who else is going?" Nagisa asked.

"Kayano, Okano, Nakamura, Sugino, and Karma."

Nagisa looked at her in surprise.

"Karma?"

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure he only wants to come over so he can nose around my home." Takina said.

"And that doesn't bother you?" Nagisa asked.

"I've already issued my threat. Besides...unless he goes in my bedroom, there's not really anything he can find that would bother me." Takina replied.

Nagisa opened his mouth to reply when another voice reached their ears. To their left, a window into the teacher lounge allowed them to see that Korosensei, Karasuma, and Irina had a guest. Takina and Nagisa came to a stop, the two peering in through the window.

"Isn't that the chairman of the school board?" Takina asked lowly.

"Yeah."

As they watched, Korosensei sucked up to Chairman Asano. Takina shook her head as they watched. He was a extraordinary, superhuman creature that could destroy the world in one big blast, but he was subservient when it came to his teaching job.

"I'd like to apologize as well." Chairman Asano was saying. "I kept thinking I'd come and introduce myself at some point, but never got around to it. Mr. Karasuma here and the Ministry of Defense have told me about you. Well, I'm not quite knowledgeable enough to understand all of it, but you are quite a pitiful creature, aren't you. Intending to become the world's savior, you've been reduced to its destroyer instead."

Takina and Nagisa exchanged confused looks. Neither was quite sure exactly what the chairman meant by that, but that could wait until later.

"Well, I have no intention of raising a fuss over that here. We are alike in that no matter how much we struggle, we can't save the earth from crisis. Most of the time, I'll have a hands-off policy toward the assassination. I'll have plenty to keep me occupied with keeping it secret, after all." Chairman Asano continued, giving Karasuma a wink with the last sentence.

"That will be helpful." Karasuma told him.

"You have a pretty rational outlook. I don't particularly dislike men like that." Irina remarked.

"I'm honored." Chairman Asano said. "However, as the head of this school, what I must consider is what to do in the case that the earth continues to survive beyond the upcoming year. In other words, the future of this school in the event that someone manages to kill you. Frankly speaking, it will be problematic if Class E doesn't remain **as is**."

"When you say "as is", do you mean the current situation where their grades and treatment are the lowest of the low?" Korosensei asked.

"Yes." came Chairman Asano's blunt retort.

 _And that is social engineering at its finest, folks_ , Takina thought.

"Are you familiar with the rule of worker ants?" Chairman Asano asked. "It states that no matter how many are in a group, twenty percent are lazy, twenty percent work, and the remaining sixty percent are ordinary. My aim is a group where five percent are lazy and ninety-five percent work. "I don't want to become like Class E.", "Class E is the one place I don't want to go."...with ninety-five percent of the students strongly believing such things, we can achieve that ideal ratio."

"I see. That's quite logical. Then, it's a problem if Class E, the five percent, isn't weak and miserable." Korosensei said.

"Today, I received a complaint from Class D's homeroom teacher. "Two students from Class E glared ferociously at one of mine.". And on top of that, threatened "to kill him"." Chairman Asano said.

Outside the office, Takina and Nagisa shared a deadpan look, both knowing that they were the two E-class students that Chairman Asano was talking about. Takina mouthed, "Did you threaten to kill them?" and when Nagisa shook his head in response, she mouthed back, "Me neither.". Takina shrugged and turned back to listening.

"Seeing as they are carrying out an assassination, it's to be expected that they would have such an expression. By itself, that's fine. The problem lies in those with the lowest grades defying the ordinary students. Under my plan, that is unacceptable. Please sternly tell them to refrain from doing so in the future." Chairman Asano said before pulling something from his pocket and throwing it to Korosensei. "Korosensei, please solve that within a second."

The item tossed at Korosensei, turned out to be a wire puzzle. What unfolded next, had Nagisa's jaw dropping while Takina stared at the scene in front of her in disbelief. Somehow, within the second granted, Korosensei ended up horribly tangled with the wire puzzle on the floor.

"Just as the rumors say, your speed is incredible. Certainly, like that you could seemingly dodge any sort of assassination." Chairman Asano said, crouching to look Korosensei in the face. "But, you know, Korosensei, in this world there are problems which cannot be solved through speed. Well, I'll leave it at that."

Nagisa and Takina turned as the door to the office was opened and the chairman stepped outside. He closed the door before he realized that Nagisa and Takina were standing there. For a moment, he just stared at them before a smile bloomed to life on his face.

"Hey there! I'm looking forward to the midterm exams. Do your best!" he suddenly told them.

And then, in the amount of time it took him to turn away from them, it was as if they had vanished from his radar, altogether. Takina leaned around Nagisa, the two watching as the chairman vanished off down the hallway.

"How callous." Takina remarked, Nagisa agreeing with her.

In just that brief encounter, they had gone from assassins to just another nobody student in the E-class. While Takina was fine with not being in the lime light, she had never had someone dismiss her that quickly. It somewhat annoyed her. Remembering that they had people waiting on them, Takina and Nagisa headed off down the hall.

"That man...I'm so glad that I'm not on the main campus." Takina remarked. "Do our best, indeed, the snarky, deceptive bas-"

"But if you were on the main campus, then the others wouldn't look down on you like that." Nagisa told her, cutting her off.

Takina pushed open the door to the outside as he said this, the two stepping outside to find the others waiting on them. The group looked up as Nagisa and Takina neared them.

"It doesn't matter if we're on the main campus or not. We're all human beings. It's a matter of common decency." Takina told Nagisa.

"That's not how it works here." Nakamura said, picking up on the topic of discussion between Takina and Nagisa.

"So I've noticed." Takina replied, the group heading off down the mountain.

"You know, that reminds me of a question I've been meaning to ask you." Sugino said, turning to Takina who raised an eyebrow in questioning.

"Shoot." she told him.

"How did you even end up in E-class from the get-go? Were your entrance exam scores that low?" Sugino asked.

"Not at all." Takina said, waving a hand in dismissal. "Actually, they said my scores were among the highest ever obtained at the school."

"Then how!?" Sugino asked.

"I purposely made it where they had to put me there. Feigned behavioral issues and all that." Takina replied idly.

"Why!?" came the coursed question between Sugino, Nagisa, Okano, and Nakamura.

"You've got to stop and think. I'm coming from a situation where I've been home schooled my whole life with the best tutors money could buy. I'm not use to crowded hallways and classrooms. It might not be ideal, but E-class suited me just fine. And then I found out about the whole assassination thing. Seemed like the perfect place to test my limits since I don't have parents around to try to please. Simple as that." Takina explained.

"You're strange." Sugino told her.

"Why thank you." Takina thanked him.

"That wasn't a compliment."

"You say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to." Takina said, waving him off.

The others started laughing and for the rest of the trip to Takina's apartment, they all chatted. When they arrived at the building, they waited while Nagisa ran into his apartment to tell his mom that he was going to spend the evening studying at a friend's. Something his mother actually encouraged. When he rejoined them, Takina took them down to the last apartment on the hall. A name plague next to the door declared that an Itamatsu lived inside.

Takina unlocked the door and let them in, asking that they take their shoes off at the door. They took off their shoes, following Takina down the short hall that opened up into her living room. Every one of them, aside from Karma, froze, staring at the room before them with mouths wide open.

Unlike Nagisa's apartment, Takina's was a corner apartment, which made it bigger than the average apartment in the building. It also had more of a western design than Japanese. The room had an open design with a wide screen TV mounted on the far left side wall, an expensive looking entertainment system hooked up to it. A black couch sat before the TV with an arm chair at either end and a glass top, coffee table sat before them. A rich, fluffy looking rug covered the hardwood floor underneath the furniture. A bookshelf just to the left of the hallway, displayed several types of DVDs and video games.

To their right, a bar gave them a clear view into a kitchen made up of modern, stainless steel appliances. Tasteful art was hung on walls painted a dusty blue and everything looked as if it had cost a pretty penny. Directly across from them, a hall lead to the bedroom and bathroom.

While her friends remained where they stood, staring at the high-end room in front of them, Takina walked over to the couch, dropping her bag onto it before heading for the bar.

"Don't just stand there. Make yourselves at home." she told them.

"This is seriously your place!?" Sugino asked, looking around.

"Yeah. I do pretty alright for myself. Even without my father's help." Takina said as she walked around the bar, bending to pick up a little silver bowl on the floor. Turning, she leaned around the corner to glance down the hall towards the bedroom. "Sergio!"

"Who's Sergio?" Nagisa asked.

A meow and the sudden appearance of a cat, answered that question. The cat had a chunky sort of body, a broad face, and a dense, blue-gray coat. It paused to look in their direction with it's copper colored eyes before turning to leap up onto the bar counter.

"There you are. Dinner time, buddy." Takina told the cat, reaching out to scratch the cat's head. She filled the bowl and sat it down on the floor, the cat jumping down to eat. "Sergio is a classic British Shorthair. My step-mother complained that she thought I'd be lonely living here by myself, so went out and got Sergio. He's good company...most days."

With the cat fed, Takina rejoined them in the living room. Karma was already scanning through her DVD and video game collection. He was intrigued to see how much alike their taste in movies and video games was.

"Are you guys hungry? I have a couple of different food places on speed dial, my treat." Takina told them as they finally begun to settle down in the living room.

"Seriously!?" Okano asked.

"Yeah. Just don't ask me to cook. I'm not really the best cook there is. I'm sure I could improve, if I wanted to, but...I don't see the point." Takina replied, grabbing the cordless, house phone off it's base and opening a drawer in the desk under it.

Out of the drawer she pulled a couple of take-out menus. Carrying those and the phone over to the coffee table that her friends were sitting around, she dropped to sit, sitting the menus and phone down in front of Okano.

"Just hit the speed dial number that's on the menu, order what you want, and tell them to put it on the Itamatsu tab." she told Okano.

"You really think telling us to get whatever we want is the best idea? We'll empty your bank account." Karma said, joining them.

"You could order enough food for the whole class for a year and you wouldn't come close to putting a dent in my bank account." Takina told him, as she pulled out her science book and started flipping through it.

"Just how rich are you!?" Sugino exclaimed.

"It's not so much as rich, as I know how to invest and balance my bank account. Math always came easy to me." Takina replied. "Doesn't hurt that my father provides a good margin for error."

"Then you should have some kind of party and invite everyone in class." Nakamura suggested.

"Hmm...maybe I will. I've never been to a party, let alone hosted one, so it might not be the best." Takina replied.

"You've seriously never been to a party?" Nakamura asked.

"No. You know the term "helicopter parent", yeah?" Nakamura nodded to Takina's question. "Yeah, well that term was coined because of my father. Part of the issue between my father and I was that the man kept me in a choke hold with how short the lease he had me on, was. He hovered so much, it was almost as if he was permanently connected to me. Parties, hanging out with others, hell, even having friends, was a no-go."

"Hell, even my parents aren't that tight." Nakamura replied.

"Yeah, well..." Takina trailed off for a moment, idly rubbing the back of one glove covered hand. "Let's just say that my father had a very fixed idea on what he wanted for my life, regardless of what I wanted. He definitely won't be winning any father of the year awards, that's for sure."

Suddenly, Takina reached out, snatching something out of Karma's hand. The others looked up as Takina shook her wallet in Karma's face in a scolding fashion.

"Just because my account can take a hit and keep supporting me, does not mean you can help yourself to my wallet." she told him.

Karma grinned back at her as she tucked the wallet into the breast pocket of her shirt. With her wallet safe and secure, they ordered food and got to work on studying. Some time during the studying, Takina's cat, Sergio, decided to jump up on Karma's shoulder and drape himself over his shoulders as if he was a scarf for Karma to wear and when food arrived, Sergio would snag a bite from Karma's food, now and then. Takina only spared the cat a glance before turning back to helping Okano with some English mock questions. Though, Karma swore, there was a tiny smile on her face as she did.

During the their time there, they learned that aside from English, Takina was rather skilled in math. She even gave Karma a run for his money when it came to the mock questions they pulled from the math textbook Takina had. It actually ended up with the two ending up in a contest to see who could solve the most problems the fastest.

With correct answers, of course.

The two kept up with each other as they flew through one question after the other, with neither getting a question wrong. It only came to an end when the others declared that they had to get home. Though it looked like the two could keep going, they called it quits...for the moment. Takina took her cat back from Karma's shoulders and saw them all to the door while the cat hung lazily from her arms.

"See you at school tomorrow!" Okano called as she and Nakamura headed off down the hall, Sugino hurrying after them.

Takina waved back to them before turning back to Karma and Nagisa.

"I should get home, too." Nagisa said, saying his farewells before heading off down the hall to his apartment.

When he had vanished inside, Karma turned to look at Takina as she shifted her grip on her cat. Sergio gave off a sound that was a mix of a displeased meow and some kind of huff, but settled back down the moment Takina started rubbing the spot between his ears.

"Do you want me to walk you to the station?" Takina offered, looking up at Karma.

"I'll be fine." Karma scoffed.

"I know that. I'm not asking for safety reasons. Someone would have to be insane or have a death wish to jump a devil child like you. I'm asking for **other** people's safety." Takina replied.

She was joking, he knew. Her eyes had turned the cornflower blue color they always turned when she was joking. Despite that, he also knew that she was somewhat being serious.

"Nah, I'll be good. See ya, tomorrow." he told her, giving her a wave before walking away.

"Try to stay out of trouble, at least for one night." she called after him.

Karma turned to look at her, a grin curling his lips as he walked backwards.

"Now, what fun would that be?" he replied.

"Just stay out of trouble. Jeez, you'd think, at your age, you'd have at least an ounce of self control."

Takina jokingly shook her head as she turned to head back into her apartment. She called a good night to Karma as she pulled the door shut. Once inside, she threw her locks and headed back into her living room, sitting Sergio down on one of the armchairs.

"What do you think, Sergio? Are they good people?" Takina asked as she gathered her books to put back into her school bag.

Sergio, who had been in the process of running a paw over one ear, stopped and gave Takina a meow in response, a purr vibrating from deep in his chest. Takina smiled as she glanced over at the cat.

"Yeah, I like them too."

While, yes, the class as a whole was strange, Takina had never been normal or had normal things in her life, so she was okay with strange. She never knew what the next day would bring. While some had issues with that, Takina didn't. It kept her on her toes.

And besides...at least she couldn't claim her life was boring.

END

Kyandi: The funny thing is...I had a cat that would sit on my shoulder while I ate and would steal my food as I went to put it in my mouth.

Takina: Yeah, Sergio will do that.

Kyandi: And you don't get on to him.

Takina: Its not like he takes all of my food. I can share.

Kyandi: You spoil your cat.

Takina: And you didn't?

Kyandi: ...Point.

Takina: Then move on.

Kyandi: Right. Everyone, please enjoy and review.

Takina: We will be back as soon as possible.

Kyandi: Bye-bye!


	3. Second Weapon

Kyandi: I'm back!

Takina: Which is her way of saying hello.

Kyandi: I can say hello if I want to.

Takina: Then why don't you?

Kyandi: Because I don't want to.

Takina: Your logic astounds me.

Kyandi: Thank you!

Takina: That wasn't a compliment.

Kyandi: Yeah, I don't care. Anyway, here's another chapter for all of you, so enjoy and review!

Takina: Kyandi-sama does not own Assassination Classroom.

Chapter 3 Second Weapon

The next morning it was obvious that something that Chairman Asano had said had gotten to Korosensei because there were twice as many duplicates of him then there had been the day before. Takina didn't even know where to concentrate, there were so many. He had multiplied so many times that the after images had become pretty shoddy.

Takina was dizzy just watching him.

She was sure that he would crash from the increase in energy expended. Sure enough, around ten-thirty, he had worn himself out, leaving him draped in his chair, fanning himself as he wheezed.

"...as expected. You look really exhausted." Maehara remarked.

"Why are you putting in so much effort teaching us, anyway?" Okajima asked.

"This is all in order to raise your test scores. And then..." Takina looked up from her desk as Korosensei described a world in which the whole class was so grateful for his help with their grades that they refused to ever try to kill him again. And then there was something about college girls asking him for help too, but Takina was sure that had more to do with their womanly assets than anything else. "It'll be like that. The danger of being killed would disappear as well, so it would be two birds with one stone."

There was silence for a moment as the others looked between each other. Even Takina was shaking her head at Korosensei's idiocy. No one in their right mind would turn down the amount of money the reward was offering just for a study buddy, no matter how good he was.

"Nah, we're better off doing that than studying." Mimura remarked.

"Yeah. Well, if we kill him, there's the reward of ten billion, too." Yada added.

"With that much money, even if our grades are bad, we'd still live rosy lives after this."

This came from a couple of different students at once. Once again, Takina was shaking her head. Just because one had money, didn't mean they could give up on grades. Money could very easily be lost and then what would they do with their lives?

"S-so that's what you're thinking of doing, is it!?" Korosensei asked in shock and displeasure.

"We're the E-as-in-end class, y'know." Okajima reasoned.

"We kinda have a better chance of assassinating you than doing well on a test." Mimura agreed.

"So that's it. I understand very well." Takina glanced up from her book once more. Korosensei's face had turned a dark purple and had a huge 'x' across it. "As you are now, you are not qualified to be assassins. All of you, come out to the schoolyard. Please call Karasuma-sensei and Irina-sensei as well."

With that, Korosensei walked out of the class, slamming the door behind him. The others stared after him, unable to understand what had suddenly gotten into him.

"What's up with Korosensei all of a sudden?" Mimura asked.

"Who knows...his mood abruptly shifted for the worse." Nakamura replied.

"I'm surprised by how slow you're all being." All eyes turned to Takina as she closed her book and got to her feet. "Money comes and goes. One day you have it and the next, poof, it's all gone. Without some kind of skills, what would you fall back on then? Everything in life, including assassination, comes with some kind of studying and hard work. You really think an assassin can blend in anywhere and accomplish their goals if they don't know customs, languages, political view points and social trends? Such thoughts...you're so unrealistic that I understand how Korosensei feels."

Takina shook her head as she walked to the door. Opening it, she vanished through it, quietly closing the door behind her. She knew, better than most, that life just wasn't that simple, no matter what a person chose to do with their life. Everything took some kind of studying or work.

Takina was leaning against the building on one side of the back door when the other students, Karasuma, and Irina came outside. Korosensei was standing in the sorry excuse of a school yard that they had behind the classroom building. He was moving the goals and other things that sat there, as if getting them out of his way. When he was done, he turned towards those watching him.

"Irina-sensei. I have a question for you, as a professional assassin." Korosensei called.

"What's this all of a sudden?" Irina asked.

"Whenever you are on the job, do you have only one plan prepared?" Korosensei asked.

"No. Just as you'd expect, rather than one preferred plan, it's better to have a few possible routes. For assassins, it's part of the basics to construct thorough backup plans in advance, in case unforeseen circumstances should arise." Irina answered. "Well, your case is so far from the norm that the plans I'd prepared were all thrown into disarray. But just watch, next time for sure, I will succeed."

"That's impossible." Korosensei told her, ignoring her reaction to this and turning towards Karasuma. "Now then, next is Karasuma-sensei. When you teach knife-work to the students, is the first blow the only crucial one?"

"Of course the first blow is the most crucial, but the movements afterward are just as important. Against a formidable opponent, there is a high probability of your first blow being dodged. The precision of your second and third strike can mean the difference between victory and defeat." Karasuma answered.

"What are you getting at?" Maehara asked.

"Just as the teachers have said. If your next more is assured, you can become an assassin full of self-confidence." As Korosensei said this, he begun to rapidly spin in place, getting faster and faster. "And what about all of you? Thinking "We'll be fine, since we have the assassination". ..you've lowered your studying goals. You are only averting your eyes from the cause of your inferiority complex."

Takina, like every girl in her class, pinned her skirt down as Korosensei reached top speed, his spinning causing a vortex to form. The wind it kicked up was almost enough to knock Takina off her feet, it was so strong.

"What if I were to flee from this classroom? What if another assassin killed me before you could? Having lost the assassination you think of as a contingency plan, you would be left with only your sense of inferiority as Class E. Here is some advice from sensei to all of you, who are so insecure. Those of you who do not possess a second weapon, are not qualified to call themselves assassins!" Korosensei declared.

Korosensei finally spun to a stop, the dust falling where it may. When it cleared, it showed Korosensei standing in the middle of a now well maintained school yard.

"There were many weeds and much uneven ground on the school campus. I have cleaned it up a bit. Sensei is a super creature capable of erasing the earth from existence. Leveling this area is a simple thing for me. Unless you have confidence in yourselves and can show that you have a secondary weapon. I will consider there to be no assassins in this classroom who deserve to be my opponent, and will level all of you along with the school building before leaving." Korosensei announced.

"A second weapon...how long do we have?" Nagisa asked.

"That has already been decided. Until tomorrow. All of you, please score within the top fifty on tomorrow's midterm test." Needless to say, most of the students thought it was an impossible task. "I have already cultivated your second weapon. Sensei does not use a slow, dull teaching method that would be inferior to those of the main building's teachers. Wield that weapon with confidence. Successfully complete this mission. Smile without embarrassment, and hold your heads high. As assassins and as members of Class E!"

Takina, from where she stood, observed her classmates. She, herself, was pretty sure she was prepared for the test. From the looks of it, the others weren't as confident in their abilities. Tomorrow would be the deciding factor.

They would find out who was really ready and who wasn't.

-0-0-0-0-

The midterm test.

Takina found out that everyone, including those in E Class, took the exam on the main campus. Basically, it meant that she and her classmates, had lost their home field advantage. To top it off, the teacher assigned to watch them, purposely kept loudly coughing and tapping his fingers on his desk to distract them. Takina, who was use to tuning out her father or the constant stream of his acquaintances that came and went, was able to ignore him.

This annoying teacher was nothing.

"You Class E lot better not cheat or anything like that. 'Cause we main building teachers are watching you reaaaaly closely." the teacher told them.

Takina didn't even bother looking up from her test.

To most in the class, the questions on the test was like facing a vicious beast out for their throats. It wasn't until they remembered the tips and tricks that Korosensei taught them that Takina heard the increase in pencil strokes across the classroom. Seeing that they had finally fallen into the groove of the test, the teacher looked around at them, shocked to see that the E Class students actually seemed to know what they were doing.

Takina couldn't help the smile on her face.

It was nice to see her classmates dive into the test from there, with more confidence than they had when they started. She, herself, continued with her test, her eyes flying over the questions while her hand flew across the page.

And then they reached question eleven.

Takina was surprised to find such a question on a middle school midterm. Even if it was an advanced school like this one. It was just ridiculous!

That one, sudden change had determential effects on E Class as a whole.

Takina was positive that this wasn't going to end pretty.

-0-0-0-0-

Even before the results came out, the students of E Class knew their results weren't going to be the best. And their fears were confirmed when their test papers were handed back a few days later.

The classroom was silent, save for Karasuma as he hung up his phone after talking to one of the teachers on the main campus about how unfair it was that they had added new material two days before the test and hadn't bothered to tell the teachers of E Class. Korosensei couldn't even face the students. He stood at the head of the class, facing the black board.

"This is my fault. It seems I took this school's system too lightly. I can't bring myself to face all of you." Korosensei said.

He was forced to, however, when a knife came hurtling towards his head. It bounced off the black board as Korosensei whipped around, avoiding the blade. Takina turned her eyes to Karma as he strolled towards the front of the class.

"You sure? If you couldn't face us, then you wouldn't be able to see me coming to kill you." Karma remarked.

"Karma! Sensei's feeling depressed right now-"

Korosensei cut off as Karma dumped his graded test papers on the teacher's desk. Korosensei picked up the papers, surprise overtaking him when he found two tests with a score of ninety-eight, two test with a score of ninety-nine, and the last with a perfect score of one hundred.

"Even if the questions change, it makes no difference to me." Karma told him, proudly showing that he had taken fourth place in the over all grade. "Judging by my results, it's because you taught me to such an unnecessary extent. But I have no intention of leaving this class. An assassination is much more entertaining than returning to my previous class. And I'm not alone, right...Itamatsu?"

All eyes turned to Takina who heaved a sigh, as if put out. Rising from her seat, she picked up her papers and headed for the head of the class.

"Thanks for calling me out like that, Akabane. I so adore being put on the spot." Takina told Karma as she came to a stop beside him, setting her papers in front of Korosensei. "But no, you aren't alone."

Korosensei picked up the papers, receiving another pleasant surprise as he looked over her grades.

"Ninety-eight in Science, ninety-nine in Social Studies, ninety-nine in Japanese, one hundred in English, and one hundred in Math?!" Korosensei read in shock.

"She got a hundred in both Math and English?! How?!" Okajima called from his seat.

"If I'm not mistaken, I rank second in the over all grade. I couldn't have gotten such a good grade in Science if it weren't for your teaching, Korosensei. And no, just like Akabane, I have no intentions of leaving this class. Would kind of defeat the purpose of getting myself placed here in the first place." Takina said, shrugging her shoulders with a small smile on her face.

"So, what are you gonna do? Everyone didn't make it into the top fifty spots, so are you gonna run away with your tail between your legs, like you said you would? When it comes down to it, aren't you just afraid of being killed?" Karma asked.

"So sly of you, Korosensei, trying to run away and make it look justified." Takina added, shaking her head in disappointment.

Both responses started sparking Korosensei's temper. Especially when other students caught on to what the two were doing and joined in. Things like "What, so you were scared, Korosensei" and "Then you should have been honest and told us that", and "Y'know like saying, "I want to run away because I'm scared"." rang out from the class.

Finally Korosensei's temper snapped.

"There is no way I will run away! I'll pay you all back double at the end-of-term exams as revenge!" Korosensei declared.

Takina smiled, turning to fist bump Karma as the other students laughed. So, yes, most of the class kind of hit a wall with the midterm, but they weren't out of the fight yet.

Takina was finding out that E Class was far more resilient than that.

After class was over, Takina left the building, deciding to stop somewhere to eat on the way home. Normally, she would have invited Nagisa to go with her, since the two went home together, but since Nagisa had clean-up duty and had to stay late, she was on her her own.

As she walked, a smile fell on her lips. She had never been so happy to get good grades. It was nice to be of some kind of help to the others.

"You seem pleased."

Takina looked up as Karma fell into step beside her. There was an easy grin on his face as he kept stride with her.

"Some what. What, upset because I beat you in rank?" Takina asked.

Her reply was a bark of a laugh.

"I'll beat you next time." he declared.

"We'll see. If you manage to do so, I'll treat you to a meal. For today, you can treat me." she told him.

Karma agreed. Walking side by side, they fell into an easy chatter. While their relationship was easy going, it was a lot easier than Karma's relationship with Nagisa. Even though the two were good friends and spent a lot of time together, Karma and Nagisa always seemed to have a kind of distance between them. A distance that didn't seem to be present between Karma and Takina.

Karma wasn't sure what it was about Takina that made him comfortable when he was pretty sure there was something dark and dangerous lurking behind the girl's color changing eyes. Despite the beast he was positive lurked within her, Takina was easy to get along with. She was laid back, most of the time, and they had a lot in common. It made it easy to talk to her, even when she did tease him.

Chatting easily, they headed for Karma's favorite burger joint, where they ordered their food. Karma paid while Takina found them a table. When Karma joined her, she was already digging into the ice cream she had ordered.

"I didn't take you as a sweets person." Karma remarked.

"So I have a bit of a sweet tooth. If I could, I'd get by on nothing but sweets. That being said, I don't want to end up as big as a house." Takina replied.

Karma chuckled. Takina didn't seem to mind a lot and seemed to care about less. It was a little funny, not to mention cliche, that she cared about her weight. Not that it stopped her from wiping clean the ice cream, eating two burgers and fries, and completely draining a thirty-two ounce strawberry milkshake. When he said something, she had replied with, "I'm not a bird, so I'm not going to eat like one.".

"Now that was a great way to end a day." Takina remarked as they left the burger place. Turning, Takina turned to look at Karma. "Hey, do you have anything planned this evening? Aside from shaking down others for their wallets?"

Karma couldn't help the spread of a grin on his face. Takina knew him well.

"I'm free. What, you aren't going to ask me out on a date, are you?" he teased.

"Oh, please. And end up with you leaving me high and dry? As much as you're a sadist, I am **not** a masochist." Takina replied, making his grin grow even wider. "No, that's not it. A new game I've had my eyes on for a while, came out in stores today. I was wondering if you wanted to hit the store with me. You can point out some more games for me to try since our taste in video games seems to be the same."

Karma was always up for checking out new games. The two hit the game store, Takina instantly snatching one of the last few copies of a new, popular game she had been waiting for. It was while they scanned the shelves, comparing games they liked, that Karma realized just how much their taste in games was alike. Takina was even able to introduce him to games he had never even considered playing, while he gave her tips on games she was stuck in that he had already played.

In the end, when they left the store, both left carrying a bag loaded with various games.

"You know, it's nice having someone around who gets my taste in video games." Takina remarked as they walked.

"What, don't you play video games where you're from?" Karma joked.

"Not anyone I grew up around." Takina replied. "My father is a very strict person. So strict, it almost boarders on abusive. Needless to say, he doesn't approve of anything that could be considered fun."

Karma glanced over at Takina as she rubbed at the back of one hand. He realized she did that a lot whenever she spoke of her father, but with the constant gloves she always seemed to be wearing, he had never seen her hands.

"Let me guess...he favored a ruler across the back of your hands." Karma remarked.

"Sort of, but it wasn't a ruler."

Takina carefully pulled back one glove, baring the back of her hand. Turning it over, she showed him. Her skin was pale, as with the rest of her skin, but the skin on the back of her hand, especially across the knuckles, was marred with thin, but obviously deep, scars.

"It was more along the lines of a riding crop but a whole lot thinner. It certainly got the point across. Focus or pain will make you focus." Takina said, pulling the glove back into place.

"That's harsh."

"Maybe, but that's about all my father understands. The world he lives in...it's mostly do or die. I guess, in some ways, I can understand his harshness with me. He wants me to succeed and be able to make it in the world, but he wants me to do it in **his** world, while I would just be happy to be a normal school girl. Minus giggling over guys, of course." Takina said.

Karma glanced at her face as she stared straight forward. Judging from the look on her face, it seemed she had long ago accepted that her father wasn't the coddling type.

"Because of the life he lives, I've grown up around a wide variety of really shady and questionable acquaintances of his. It's made for a very...interesting life. Needless to say, my father didn't approve of me taking any interest in anything outside of what he considered appropriate activities. I heard, once, that before I was born and before my birth mother died, that he wasn't as uptight as he is now. I guess that's what happens when you lose your significant other so suddenly after gaining a child. Whatever his reasons, we clashed horribly a lot of times. Then came the incident where I kicked him in the groin."

Karma could not contain the snort that left him as he broke into laughter. The image of Takina kicking her old man in the nuts, was just too priceless.

"Seriously?" he asked.

"Yeah. I was about to turn thirteen and had just gone through a lesson with my step-mother on how to defend myself against a guy getting too handsy. My first response in the fight was to kick him. Obviously, he wasn't too keen about it after her recovered and that took a while. I hit him pretty hard. I probably won't ever have siblings."

It took a moment for Karma to stop laughing. Takina looked over at him, raising an eyebrow. She waited patiently for him to stop laughing. When he finally did, she looked at him.

"You done now?" she asked.

"Let me guess, that's when you decided to move out on your own." Karma said, instead of answering.

"Pretty much. I've been living off what my mother left me when she died in a small, secluded town in Switzerland. When I was to start this school year, I decided a change of scenery would be good and since my mother was part Japanese, I decided that Japan might be a good change and you know the rest. Pretty boring back story, huh?"

"It makes sense, at least." Karma answered.

"And what is that suppose to mean?" Takina demanded, looking up at him.

"Oh, nothing."

The grin on Karma's face, suggested otherwise. So, in retaliation, Takina suddenly, and swiftly, bumped herself into his side, sending him staggering a few steps to the side. Karma turned to ask her what the big deal was and cut off when she suddenly darted several feet ahead of him. Turning on the spot, she grinned and held up what she had managed to swipe from him when she had bumped him.

His wallet.

"You're not the only one that can swipe people's wallets." she told him.

Karma, even though he knew it was his, patted his pockets in search of his wallet. It really wasn't there. He turned his eyes back to Takina, who grinned as she waved his wallet in front of her. It was a little amusing that she had managed to do to him what he did to others.

"Alright, give it back." he told her.

"Why? You never do." she replied.

His grin grew at that. He was pretty sure he knew what she was about to do and he was more than happy to play along.

"If you want it, you'll have to come and get it."

And he was right.

Karma took one step towards Takina...only for her to turn on her heel and dash away.

"Hey!"

Takina looked back over her shoulder as he called out, a playful grin on her face. Her eyes had turned a pretty shade of aquamarine, a color he had begun to associate with her being playful.

"I didn't say I would make it easy for you!" she called back.

And with that, she snaked a corner, vanishing from sight. Not one to lose, Karma bolted after her. It was a little difficult, keeping up with her as she weaved through people, but he managed, if by the skin of his teeth. It took him having to pull a fast one on her in order to catch her. In the end, Karma ended up taking an alley to cut her off on the next street over. When he caught her, he caught her around the waist with one arm, pulling her back off her feet for a moment as he yanked her back against his chest, the other arm wrapping around her to pin her arms to her side.

Takina let out a noise of surprise when he grabbed her, but ended up out right laughing. Karma was sure that it was the first time he had heard her laugh like that.

"I should have seen that coming." Takina remarked, reigning in her laughter. "You can let go now."

"Not until you give it back." Karma insisted.

"Alright, alright. Here."

Takina held out her hand as far as she could, his wallet caught between two of her fingers. Karma released arms and grabbed it before she could pull it out of reach. He tucked the wallet out of reach.

"You can let go now." Takina repeated.

"Hmm...I don't think I want to." Karma replied playfully.

Takina twisted to look over her shoulder at him. There was a wicked little gleam to her eyes as she looked at him and Karma knew she was up to something. He just didn't know what.

"Oh, but you will let me go." she said confidently.

"And what makes you say that?" he asked.

Takina grinned at him for a moment, making him quirk an eyebrow. What she did next, shocked him. Karma's eyes widened when Takina suddenly leaned back against him...and planted a kiss on his cheek. It shocked him long enough for her to slip free. She danced out of his reach, grinning as she finally came to a stop.

"That. You really shouldn't put anything past a girl." Takina told him.

Before Karma could reply, a phone ringing reached their ears. Takina, recognizing the ring tone, dug her phone out of her pocket, glancing at the screen. Instantly, her grin was gone, a frown curling her lips down.

"Your old man?" Karma asked.

"Yeah. I better take this or he won't stop. I'll see you at school tomorrow." she told him. She started to turn away, but stopped. "Thanks for hanging out with me. It was fun."

With a wave and a smile to him, she turned, answering the call and putting the phone to her ear. Karma watched her walk away, grinning to himself. Takina sometimes acted like a straight lance, kill joy, but she actually could be fun.

And then there was the kiss.

Idly, Karma reached up to rub at his cheek. She had been right about one thing, that little peck on the cheek had surprised him. He was sure that was all that kiss was, just a tactic to surprise him and give her a chance to slip out of his grip. But whether that was all it was or not, Karma was sure about one thing.

It wouldn't work a second time.

END

Kyandi: We'll have to come up with a better tactic to use next time.

Takina: Yes, we will. He's too sly.

Kyandi: You can say that again, but that's what keeps us on our toes.

Takina: True.

Kyandi: Also, I apologize that this chapter is on the shorter side.

Takina: She wanted to start the next chapter at a certain point, so it was necessary.

Kyandi: Yep, but I have other stories I need to work on, so everyone enjoy and review.

Takina: We will return as soon as possible.

Kyandi: Bye-bye


	4. Unholy Screeches and Thugs

Kyandi: I have returned!

Takina: We apologize for the long wait.

Kyandi: Yes, we do. It's been a mixture of things. First off, I just moved. I always have difficulty getting back into my writing after moving to a new house.

Takina: Then there's the two jobs, taking care of your mother, and all your muse wanting to stick to one story.

Kyandi: True on all three.

Takina: Speaking of which, there is a request that Kyandi-sama wants to get out.

Kyandi: Right. There is a link on my bio page, under the links to my social media. I'm not asking any of you to feel like you have to do anything, but, if you are a fan of mine, just please, check it out and, maybe, pass on the word. If you want to help, then you have my eternal gratitude, but if not, then just please pass on the word. That's all I'm asking.

Takina: It's something that's very dear to her.

Kyandi: It is, but like I said, I would just be happy with word being passed on. Hopefully someone will want to help.

Takina: Hopefully.

Kyandi: With that said, everyone, please enjoy and review.

Takina: Kyandi-sama does not own Assassination Classroom.

Chapter 4 Unholy Screeches and Thugs

In the days following the midterm results, class seemed to cool down and got back to normal. The day found most of the class picking groups for an upcoming, over night trip. Everyone was busy splitting into groups of six or seven. Takina, herself, had decided to just let the chips fall where they may. If anyone really wanted her in their group than they would ask.

"Nagisa, have you decided on the members of your group?" Kataoka asked. "When you have, tell the result to one of the class representatives. Either myself or Isogai."

"Group?" Nagisa asked, confused for a moment.

"Did you forget?" Kayano asked. "She's talking about next week's school trip."

"Sheesh...you've practically just begun your time as third years, and yet at a time like this, supervising a field trip, how ridiculous." Korosensei complained. "Sensei isn't particularly interested at all."

Takina wanted to laugh at that moment. Korosensei said that he wasn't interested in the trip, yet he already had a full packed bag sitting behind his desk. A bag that looked like it had to contain everything he owned. Many of the students complained that, for a school trip, his bag was way too big and that there were obviously things packed that Korosensei wouldn't need.

"I've been found out. Frankly, I'm looking forward to going on a trip with all of you, so I can't help being excited." Korosensei said, dismissing them for P.E.

Takina didn't understand school trips. While she was excited, herself, simply because she had never been on one, she didn't understand the purpose behind the trip. Didn't mean she couldn't try to enjoy it, right?

After changing, all of the students gathered outside and took a seat as Karasuma addressed them.

"As you are aware, there is a three day and two night trip to Kyoto next week. I don't want to hinder your full enjoyment, but your mission extends to this as well." Karasuma announced.

Takina wasn't really surprised to hear that, though she was disappointed. She had never been to Kyoto and would have loved to have been able to explore and enjoy without any added work.

"You mean work on the assassination even there?" Okano asked.

"Exactly. The vast difference between Kyoto's streets and the classroom extensively complicate matters. Still, your individual groups' sightseeing routes determined in advance, and the plan is for him to accompany. The location is ideal for a sniper. It appears that the government has already made arrangements with professional snipers. Should they be successful, the ten billion will be divided up according to the contributions of those involved. I'm leaving the choosing of an assassination-oriented route in your hands."

With that, they were put to work on their training. Takina spent all of the class thinking about the trip. Even though they would still have to work on killing Korosensei, she was hopeful that they would still be able to enjoy, at least, a little of their time in Kyoto. But, she kind of had a problem.

How did she go about asking others if she could join their group?

By the end of the school day, Takina still hadn't figured that out and she had yet to be asked to join anyone's group. The others were already busy building their groups.

"Karma! Wanna be in the same group?" Nagisa called, approaching Karma.

"Hm? Okay." Karma agreed.

"Ehh? Are you gonna be alright, Karma? While we're traveling, it'll be problematic if you pick fights, won't it?" Sugino, who was also in Nagisa's group, asked.

"It'll be fine." Karma told him, pulling a picture from his bag to show it to Sugino. On it, it showed Karma with two of his victims, both holding their I.D.s up to the camera. "I make sure to prevent the eye-witnesses from talking. So it won't become public knowledge."

"Oi...Like I thought, let's not ask him to join our group." Sugino told Nagisa lowly.

"Erm...but I get why he's like that." Nagisa replied.

"So, who do we have? Nagisa, Sugino, Kayano, and...?"

"I invited Okuda to join us, too!" Kayano said when Karma trailed off.

"There are six to seven people per group, so we need, at least, one more girl, right?" Karma asked.

"Ehehe...don't underestimate me. I invited someone a while ago for just this occasion." Sugino said, gesturing for Kanzaki to join them. "How about the class Madonna, Kanzaki?"

"Ooh! No objections here!" Kayano agreed.

Nagisa agreed of the choice too. Though she didn't stand out much, Kanzaki was loved by all in the class. With no objections from the rest of the group, Kanzaki became their sixth member. It was then that Nagisa caught sight of something else and stopped.

"Something wrong, Nagisa?" Kayano asked.

"We can have up to seven people, right?" Nagisa asked.

Karma followed Nagisa's eyes to where Takina was sitting at her desk, a book open in her hand. She was just about the only person in the class that wasn't in a group yet.

"Oh, I get where you're going with that." Karma remarked, giving Nagisa a nod of approval.

Nagisa smiled as the others caught on and agreed. None of them, aside from Nagisa, had yet to really get to know Takina. She was pretty stand-offish most of the time. This would be a good chance to get to know her.

"Hey, Takina."

Takina looked up from her book as Nagisa walked over to her desk.

"Oh, hey, Nagisa. You ready to head home yet?" she asked, as if she had been waiting for him.

Since they walked home together almost every day, she probably had been waiting for him.

"Not yet. I wanted to ask...do you want to join our group for the school trip?" he asked.

Takina looked up at him surprised, her eyes, changing with her mood, turning a pale blue-green. For a moment, she just stared, but then she blinked and snapped herself out of it. Marking her place in her book, she sat the book down.

"Sure." she agreed.

"Alright, it's decided!" Kayano said happily as the others joined Nagisa at Takina's desk. "Let's figure out where we'll be going."

The others pulled up desks against Takina's so they could start planning. Off to the side of the room, Irina watched the students with a smirk on her face.

"Hmm...you're all such kids. Going on this sort of trip at this point, for someone like me, who has flown all over the world..."

Irina said this as if she was mocking them and she probably was too. Not that anyone in the class could care less. They were all excited about planning their trip.

"Then stay here and look after things, Bitch-sensei." Maehara remarked.

"Be sure to water the flower bed." Yada added.

Irina stared at the students as they went back to deciding what they would do during their trip. Her desire to actually go on the trip was revealed by her losing her temper and pulling a gun, yelling something about the students not talking like they would have a great time without her.

The woman needed to learn to make up her mind.

Once everyone had decided their groups, Korosensei passed out guide books that Takina swore weighted more than every single book she had for school...times two.

"There's one for each of you." Korosensei said.

"What did you do? Find twenty different ways to describe every flower, plant, and sidewalk crack in the city?" Takina asked, heaving hers up into her arms.

"It is an illustrated guide I created last night of all the sightseeing spots. The top one hundred popular souvenirs, and basic to advanced self-defense techniques for traveling. The bonus gift is a pre-assembled paper-craft model of Kinkaku-Ji." Korosensei explained.

"Amazingly detailed as ever, I see." Takina remarked, dropping hers on her desk. "Can't you generally make it to Kyoto in a minute?"

"Of course! Still there is a difference between going there and going there on a trip. I look forward to being there with everyone. To encountering good and bad things with everyone. I am happy I can travel together with you." Korosensei told them.

Takina didn't get it. Then again, she traveled a lot, so a short trip to Kyoto didn't really seem like much to her. Then again, as Korosensei said, traveling with others could make a world's difference. After all, she had always done that traveling alone. Maybe it would be different, maybe not.

She would find out.

-0-0-0-0-

After days spent planning out the sights they wanted to see and the routes they wanted to take, the day of the trip finally arrived. Takina had asked a sweet lady next door to feed and check on her cat while she was gone, hoping that, for the few days she would be gone, Sergio could behave himself. The morning found Takina standing with her classmates, waiting to board the train.

"Uwaah...Classes A-D are in first-class cars." Sugaya whined.

"We're the only ones in second-class. It's the same feeling as always." Nakamura remarked.

Several of the students from the other classes sneered at them, but Takina simply flipped her hair over her shoulder and turned back around, presenting them with her back.

"Sorry for keeping you idling."

Takina and the others turned, Takina freezing on the spot when she saw Irina walking towards them pimped out like a celebrity. Talk about being over dressed.

"Bitch-sensei, what's with that Hollywood celebrity get-up?" Kimura asked.

"When you're an assassin, it's only natural to take advantage of being a woman. It's perfect for when a target invites you along on a vacation. If he becomes disillusioned by you wearing unfashionable clothes, the chance you've been waiting for will be lost. A good woman pays special attention to her traveling fashion." Irina replied.

"In this case, you're shot missed it's mark." Takina retorted.

As if to prove her point, Karasuma agreed that the get-up was too conspicuous and demanded that Irina change. Which only led to Irina having a pouting fit once they were on the train. Just went to show that when one lived her life among the rich and powerful, they became out of touch with how the general masses thought. Takina simply shook her head as she boarded the train.

She came from a well off family, yet she wasn't that out of touch.

Well...not _**that**_ out of touch.

Somehow, once on the train, she ended up sitting next to Karma, which wasn't a bad thing.

For her, at least.

"Huh? The train's departed, but..." Sugino trailed off as he looked around.

"Come to think of it, where's Korosensei?" Nagisa asked, voicing what Sugino thought.

A tapping on the window had Takina turning towards it, her eyes widening when she saw what was there. Reaching out, she tapped Nagisa on the shoulder. When he turned to her, she pointed towards the window.

"I think I know where he is." she remarked.

Nagisa turned towards the window, letting out a yell when he saw that Korosensei was clinging to the side of the train. Scrambling for his phone, Nagisa called Korosensei's phone so the two could speak.

"Why are you clinging to the window, Korosensei?!" Nagisa asked.

"Well...I was buying sweets at the station, so I missed the train. I'll travel with you like this until the next station." Korosensei told him, activating his camouflage to make his skin reflect the train. It did nothing to hide his luggage and clothes. "Don't worry. I'm camouflaged, so it only looks like my clothes and luggage are clinging to the train."

Takina took hold of Nagisa's hand, pulling his phone towards her as she peered out the window at Korosensei.

"Three words for you, Korosensei...conspicuous and unnatural!" she said into the phone before hanging it up and drawing the shade over the window. When Nagisa gave her a look, she propped her hands on her hips. "If he wants to act silly out there, then let him. We don't have to act like we know him."

With that, she turned on her heel and returned to her seat, crossing her legs and pulling out a book. She flipped the book open and settle back to read. She was still reading the book when they reached the next stop and Korosensei was finally able to get inside the train, now in his human disguise.

"Wheew, that was tiring. Traveling so you don't stand out is certainly rough." Korosensei said.

"Don't drag along such a huge ass bag." Okajima said.

"Korosensei is usually conspicuous anyway." Hayami remarked.

"You'd think he'd try harder. Isn't it bad for a supposed "state secret" to be so attention grabbing in public?" Takina asked, flipping a page in her book, Korosensei flinching as she pointed this out. "And that so called "disguise" is pitiful. Up close, it's easy to tell he's not human."

Several of the others agreed with her. Sugaya, who had been working on carving something, turned in his seat to look at Korosensei, calling out to him as he threw something over to the teacher. Korosensei caught them to see that it was a pair of wooden, fake noses.

"First off, let's change that false nose that's always falling off." Sugaya said.

Takina peered over the top of her book as Korosensei tried one on, finding that it fit perfectly.

"What an amazing fit!" Korosensei praised.

"That's 'cause I carved it to suit the curve and look of your face. Making stuff like that is my strong point, after all." Sugaya said.

"Hey, Takina."

Taking turned her attention away from their teacher and towards Kayano when she called her. The other girl offered her a hand of cards. Blinking in confusion, Takina marked her place in her book and took the cards. Kayano told her what game they were playing, as if she expected Taking to just instantly agree to play. Takina didn't argue.

"I have to say, I've never traveled with others before, but it's quite intriguing." Takina remarked idly.

"I know what you mean." Kayano agreed. "When you're traveling, you can see somewhat unexpected sides to everyone."

"Yeah." Nagisa agreed. "Well, except..."

Takina's group mates all turned to look at her as she rearranged her cards. When none of them said anything, she looked up from her cards, blinking in questioning as she looked around at them.

"What?" she asked.

"It's nothing, just...you're the same as always." Kayano told her.

"What can I say...I'm pretty straight forward." Takina replied, turning her eyes back to her cards. "You can take things pretty much at face value with me."

Beside her, Karma shifted her bag to one side with his foot. Takina instantly kicked his foot to the side and shifted her bag back. When he did it again, she repeated her previous actions, even taking a moment to shift a key chain back in place.

"Why are you doing that?" Sugino asked.

"Doing what?" Takina asked.

"You keep moving it back exactly to how it had been sitting before." Sugino pointed out.

"You did the same thing when we came over to your house to study. Every time someone moved something, you put it back exactly as it had been." Okuda said.

"If I sit something down, I prefer it stay there." Takina said simply, shrugging her shoulders.

"Are you OCD or something?" Karma asked.

"So what if I am? There's nothing wrong with a little order." Takina retorted, kicking him in the shin when he tried to move the bag again. "Leave my bag alone."

Karma gave her a devilish grin and the two got into a fight with Karma trying to move the bag and Takina kicking him before moving the bag back. Karma's grin grew when she tried to kick him only for him to move his leg out of the way at the last second.

"Akabane, I'm warning you!" Takina said lowly, jamming her heel down on his foot.

Laughing, even though he pulled his foot back, rubbing at it, Karma backed down...for the moment. Takina gave him a sharp look.

"I guess we did learn something new about you." Kayano said as the others laughed.

"It's nothing new. I would have told you if you had asked." Takina told her.

"Who would think to ask that?" Kanzaki pointed out, one hand covering her mouth as she laughed lowly.

Takina opened her mouth to reply but quickly whipped around to snatch her bag out of Karma's grip, sitting it on the other side of her. She gave Karma a look, silently daring him to try to reach around her. Karma put his hands up, as if in surrender, but she wasn't fooled. She kept one eye on him as they played. After a couple of rounds of the game, Kanzaki finally stood.

"Hey, I'm going to go buy drinks for everyone, so what would you like?" she asked.

"Ah, I'll go too." Okuda offered.

"Me too! Takina?" Kayano asked.

"Yeah, I'll come. I want to see what they have. That does not, however," Takina snatched her bag up before Karma could touch it. "give you permission to mess with my stuff."

Karma grinned as Takina set her bag with Nagisa and followed after the girls. The four girls slipping past a couple of guys, Kanzaki excusing herself when she bumped into one. Except to step around them, Takina didn't pay them any mind.

She had no idea, at the time, that those boys were soon going to become a pain in her side.

-0-0-0-0-

"It's only the first day and he's already on the verge of death."

Takina looked up from her book to where Korosensei was draped over the couch, his head looking like a beach ball that had lost all of it's air. They had only just arrived at their lodgings and he already looked like he was ready to kick the bucket.

"You okay? Wanna take a rest in your room?" Okano asked, even while trying to stab Korosensei with a knife.

"No...It's nothing to worry about. I'll head back to Tokyo for a bit after this. Since I ended up leaving my pillow behind." Korosensei said.

How he didn't already have everything he owned in his bag was beyond Takina. But he turned out to be the only one among them that didn't have something in their bag that was suppose to be there. Kanzaki was having trouble trying to locate the itinerary she had made for her group and she was currently digging through her bag for it.

"Any luck, Kanzaki? Did you find the itinerary?" Kayano asked.

"No." Kanzaki replied.

"Kanzaki is diligent, so I was impressed when she originally put the schedule together. Still, don't worry. If you take sensei's handmade guidebook with you, everything will be fine." Korosensei said.

"We put our own together because we don't want to walk around carrying that!" Maehara and Okajima yelled.

"I don't know. I think I'll carry mine." Takina remarked.

"Oh, Itamatsu!" Korosensei said, getting teary eyed at the thought that, at least one of his students would use the guidebook he had worked so hard on.

"Only because it'll make a good blunt object in case I need to hit someone." Korosensei deflated at Takina's next words, her classmates laughing as Takina shrugged. Leaving Korosensei to sulk, Takina turned to Kanzaki. "You sure you put it in the bag?"

"I'm certain I put it in my bag, and yet...I guess it fell out somewhere." Kanzaki said, clearly upset.

"It's alright, really. We appreciate the hard work you put into it either way." Takina assured her.

Kanzaki gave her a smile. While it was a loss after all the work she had put into it, it was just an itinerary. It wasn't something they couldn't live without. After settling in for night, they all prepared for the next day and all it would bring.

Takina only wish she knew it would end the way it would.

-0-0-0-0-

The next day dawned bright and early, and, together with her group, Takina set out to see the sites. Walking down the street with Karma at her side and the rest of her group just ahead of her, she let her eyes wander over the scenery.

"But y'know, once we'd gotten to Kyoto, I forgot all about the assassination." Sugino was saying. "I mean, it's such great scenery. Like a place completely unrelated to assassinations and stuff like that."

"In reality, it's the complete opposite, Sugino." Nagisa told him. "I'd like to take a little detour. It's right near that convenience store."

The spot he took them to was a land marker.

"That says...Sayamoto Ryoma, doesn't it?" Okuda asked.

"Ooh~ The site of the old "Omiya", where the 1876 Ryoma assassination occurred." Karma remarked.

"Huh, nice." Takina remarked. "If I'm not wrong, isn't Honnou-Ji around here, too?"

"Right. Back then, it's location was a bit different, though." Nagisa confirmed.

"I only remembered reading that it was here in Kyoto." Takina said, shrugging her shoulders. "Couldn't Oda Nobunaga's death in 1582 also be counted as an assassination?"

"Yeah. Even though it's the space of a mere one kilometer or so, some incredibly big names have been assassinated here. If you include the lesser-known assassinations too, there must be too many to count. This city was always at the heart of Japan." Nagisa said.

"Yet, it's like an assassination holy ground." Takina added.

"I get it. If you put it that way, this is really the perfect assassination trip." Sugino said.

"It will be...if we can pull it off." Takina agreed.

With that discussion done, they moved on, Karma insisting they stop to rest and that he wanted to try some Kyoto coffee. Takina was inclined to agree with the second part. She had heard some good things about the sugary-sweet coffee that Kyoto coffee shops were known for. After they stopped for coffee, they headed further into the Gion District, following the route that Kanzaki had picked out for them.

The further they went, the less people they came across. It was almost like a ghost town.

"Heeh, if you go this deep into the Gion District, there's really no signs of life." Kayano remarked.

"My thoughts exactly." Takina agreed.

"Yup. That's because it's only made up of shops that turn away first-time customers. The people who come here don't aimlessly wander around. So we won't have to work around them. That's why it was the route I wanted. It's just right for an assassination, isn't it?" Kanzaki asked.

"Props for preparedness." Takina told Kanzaki.

"Then I guess we'll carry out the plan here." Kayano cheered.

"It really is just perfect." A sudden voice breaking in, had all of them turning. Three guys, thugs really, were walking towards them, grins on their faces. "Now why would you walk in an area like this. Where abduction is a piece of cake?"

Takina tensed at the word "abduction". That never boded well and she was sure that they were about to be in for a fight. Especially when she saw the looks the thugs gave her and her female group mates. Takina tensed further, ready to fight. She was taken by surprise, though, when Karma stepped in front of her, somewhat blocking her, and Okuda who was behind her, from view.

"What's up, gents? Well, you don't seem to be here for sightseeing." Karma said, grinning back at the thugs.

"All you boys have to do is leave the women here and go home." one said.

Karma struck faster than Takina had ever seen him move in training. He slammed a hand into the guy's lower jaw, breaking a tooth with the force behind the hit, before he jammed fingers into the thug's eyes and slammed his head into a pole. Karma, job well done, turned to Nagisa, a grin on his face.

"See, Nagisa? If there aren't any witnesses, then there's no problem even if I fight." Karma told him.

"Karma, behind you!"

Karma perked up when Takina yelled out to him, using his given name for the first time, but didn't turn in time to avoid the pipe to the back of the head as a fourth guy stepped out of his hiding space. Takina hurried towards Karma, dropping to a knee beside him to check on him.

"This place is really well-hidden. Oi, grab the women." the fourth guy, obviously the leader, said before turning to Takina.

Takina went to stand, to defend herself but the guy, Thug Boss as she decided to call him, swung the pipe at her. He had been aiming to miss but the swinging pipe had it's desired effect. Takina dodged, her hurried backwards retreat putting her off balance. He took the chance to grab her then, twisting her arm up behind her. One of his cronies approached her then with hands that looked all to happy to touch and wander. Takina replied to those creepy hands with a foot to his face.

Sugino and Nagisa tried to help, but were easily knocked out and the other thugs grabbed Kanzaki and Kayano. Takina was glad to see that Okuda had made herself scarce and while the place was basically void of other humans, Takina was sure that someone would come running if they heard a scream.

And Takina could scream pretty loudly.

Despite it being more damsel in distress than she really cared for, Takina took a deep breath, and, before any of the jerks who attacked them could stop her, let out the loudest, most unholy screech that any of her friends had ever heard. It had a few of the guys covering their ears while their boss quickly slapped a hand over her mouth.

"Oi, zip it. You'll have plenty of time to scream later." he told her before hauling her off towards a van.

Takina fought the whole way, the guy having to struggle to get her to the van. Getting her all taped up and into the van along side Kanzaki and Kayano, took an act of congress. The guys slipped into the van after them and quickly took off, leaving Nagisa, Karma, and Sugino behind.

"Those guys were way too easy!" one guy said, laughing loudly from behind the seat where Takina was now sitting between Kanzaki and Kayano.

"Didn't I tell ya? Brats who've generally got nothing but book smarts are completely helpless against strength like ours." sneered their boss.

"This is a crime, you know." Kayano snapped.

"Letting boys see that sort of expression...how scandalous." said another of the guys. "We're all bored with school trips, ain't we? How 'bout we do each other a favor and have fun together."

"Hey, let's go to karaoke first. Karaoke." add another, crowding too close to Kayano.

"Why would you come all the way to Kyoto for karaoke? You're ruining our trip!" Kayano snapped.

"You don't get it, do ya. That feeling of ruination's just fine, ain't it. I bet that girl over there knows what I'm talking about." the boss said, looking at Kanzaki. "'I've seen her somewhere before.' The girl always hanging around with my main woman said that, and she told me."

The guy showed them a picture on a cell phone then. While the hair style was different and the dress style was definitely not something Takina had ever seen her in, the girl in the picture was, without a doubt, Kanzaki.

"This's from last year, in a Tokyo game center around summertime. It's you, right?" he asked. "I'd planned to kidnap you, so this opportunity is too good to pass up. Especially with the foreign chick next to you."

Takina's eyes narrowed as he shifted his gaze to her. Her father had always warned her that her looks could get her in trouble if she wasn't careful. She so wasn't going to tell him that he had been right. The guys grinned at her as he turned back around in his seat.

"You sure hung out a lot, huh. Who'd have thought you were a student at Kunugigaoka. But I understand, about people with good pedigrees. In some ways, they want to be ruined." The guy turned, his grin making Takina's stomach turn. "It ain't anything to be ashamed of. Screwing things up is fun. If it's methods you want, we know all the ways to bring things to ruin. From now until night fall, the ruination sensei will teach you absolutely everything."

They were in so much trouble, it wasn't funny.

-0-0-0-0-

Back at the abduction site, Okuda had come out of hiding and was checking on the boys as they started getting up.

"Y-you guys! Are you alright?!" Okuda asked.

"I'm glad that you're safe, Okuda." Nagisa said, turning to look at her.

"Sorry. I hid right at the start." Okuda admitted as Karma got to his feet, rubbing the back of his head.

"They covered up the license plate number. The car was probably stolen, and a common model you can find anywhere. Those bastards are experienced at committing crimes." Karma remarked. "Even if we report it, or anyone reports hearing Itamatu's ungodly scream, the issue won't be settled immediately. That said, I'd like you to let me deal with them personally."

The look on Karma's face was scary, at best. It was obvious that he was angry beyond words and while they had planned for there to be trouble on this trip, this was not the kind of trouble they had been preparing themselves to deal with.

Regardless, it was trouble they were going to have to deal with.

END

Kyandi: Yeah...I would scream too.

Takina: And you have a scream more unholy than mine.

Kyandi: Yep. My father always said that if I ever needed to scare a guy off, all I have to do is open my mouth.

Takina: I don't think he was talking about your screaming, though.

Kyandi: Maybe, maybe not. I won't be asking. Anyway, I need to work on other stories, so are you ready to wrap this up?

Takina: As ready as I can be.

Kyandi: Good. Everyone, please enjoy and review.

Takina: We will return as soon as possible.

Kyandi: Bye-bye!


	5. Ending With A Bang

Kyandi: Hello, Kyandiacs. We've returned.

Takina: She's been working over time.

Kyandi: I've decided to try to be a little more active this year.

Takina: In other words...she's going to try to do less procrastinating.

Kyandi: Try is the operative word here.

Takina: How's your muse?

Kyandi: Pretty good...for now.

Takina: Just...try to keep her fed.

Kyandi: I'm trying, I'm trying. Anyway, everyone enjoy and review.

Takina: Kyandi-sama does not own Assassination Classroom.

Chapter 5 Ending With A Bang

"Even if you scream and cry here, no one will come."

Takina currently found herself sitting on the floor of what looked like an abandoned club, a bar taking up one corner. Kanzaki and Kayano sat on either side of her, all of their hands tied behind their backs. From the moment she had been shoved to the floor, she had begun to search for a way out, twisting her hands in an attempt to free them from their ties.

So far, no luck.

"If we're gonna play, then it's best to have a big audience. So we're calling some buddies over. We're setting up a commemoration photo all proper-like, too. Let's have a real good time messing shit up."

This came from the thugs leader who Takina had heard being called Ryuki. Whatever his name was, she didn't care. The moment he touched her, or her two friends, in any inappropriate manner, his name was going to become Mudhole because that was what she was going to stomp into his ass.

Takina watched the thugs walk away from them, the jerks cutting up in a corner. Thankfully, for the moment, they were leaving them be. Takina just hoped it was long enough for either help to come or for her to figure out a way out of there. The whole time, Takina continued to twist her hands, trying hard to wiggle them free of their bindings.

"You know," Kayano started speaking, looking at Kanzaki. "That picture before was a bit surprising. So the diligent and serious Kanzaki had a phase like that too, huh."

"Yeah. My father was really strict. He demanded that I have only a good academic background, a good job, and a good title. I wanted to get away from that sort of lifestyle ruled by prestige, wanted to strip myself of the uniform that was my family's name. So I changed my appearance and went to play somewhere where no one knew me. I'm a real idiot, aren't I. Thanks to my playing around, the title I received was "part of the E-as-in-end Class". I don't even know where I belong anymore." Kanzaki said.

"Then why don't ya become our comrade." All three girls looked up as Ryuki crouched in front of them. "We also live by the belief that "prestige and that can go die"! Mess up the people who act like they're so elite. How about something like bringing them back down to everyone else's level? For a salary man in a nice suit, use a woman and accuse him of molesting her. For a seemingly successful and powerful woman, kidnap her just like this, and engrave wounds that will never disappear into both her heart and body. We've taught them plenty of things with that sort of play. You can call us missionaries of ruination."

"Awful..." Kayano muttered.

For a moment, the grin on Ryuki's face vanished. In the next second, he seized Kayano by the throat, choking the girl.

"What's with looking down on us as if you're so elite, huh?! We're gonna drag you right down to our lev-"

Takina, when she looked back on the moment later on, would say she kind of blacked out and moved without thinking. All she knew was one moment she felt like ice was being poured in her veins as she watched him grab Kayano, in the next, she was cutting Ryuki off as she flew to her feet and kicked him across the face. She knew he wasn't going to be happy with it, but at least he let go of Kayano.

"Leave her alone or next time I'll kick lower." Takina warned.

The dark look that was turned on her did nothing to quell the anger growing in her. She glared back at him as he slowly rose to his feet, his hands curling into fists. She could even see the nerve in his temple begin to tick.

"You little-"

"Careful, now. Don't want to fry your brain trying to think of something to say, now do you?" Takina snapped, only enraging him more.

"Takina!"

Takina only heard the last syllable of her name over the ringing in her ears as Ryuki punched her squarely across the face. He packed enough force behind his hit to send her crashing to the floor, white spots exploding to life across her vision.

"You little bitch! Think you're so much better than me, don'tcha?!" Ryuki demanded.

"In your case...yeah, I do. Simply because it pisses you off." Takina retorted, shifting herself into a sitting position.

She gave her head a toss, managing to flick her hair over her shoulder and gathered the blood pooling in her mouth to spit it out...right on Ryuki's shoe.

"You'll regret that, you bitch." Ryuki growled.

"Bite me, moron."

Ryuki grabbed her by the throat then, hauling her up and off her feet until she dangled from his grip, unable to even pry at his fingers. He completely cut off her air, leaving her struggling to try to breathe but unable to do so.

"You think you're so much better, but we'll see how long you continue to look down your nose at us once we get down to business." Ryuki told her before throwing her, hard, onto the couch behind Kanzaki and Kayano.

Both girls crowded close to the couch to check on Takina as she shifted into a sitting position, coughing as she dragged air into her lungs. Her left cheek, where he had punched her, felt hot, a throbbing pain spreading over her cheek from her cheekbone to her jaw. She could still taste a heavy taste of iron in her mouth and was pretty sure he had given her teeth quite the rattling.

"Listen up. You're going to keep about ten of us company from now until nightfall. When you go back to your hotel, you'll nonchalantly say "we just had fun and did karaoke". If you do, then nobody will get hurt. When we return to Tokyo, let's all play together again. All while looking at commemorative photos of our fun school trip." Ryuki told them.

A door opening had all of them turning towards the door, Takina shifting off the couch until she placed herself between Kanzaki and Kayano and the guys in the room.

"There they are. Our photographers have arrived." Ryuki said.

To his surprise, though, it wasn't his photographers, but rather, one of his guys, all beat up, behind towed into the room by none other than Karma. Nagisa and Sugino followed behind him as Karma dumped the guy on the ground.

"School trip guidebook, page 1243. What to do when a classmate has been kidnapped. If you have no leads to the culprits. First, we will figure out if they are locals of the area from their discussion topics, accent, etc. If they are not a local, and, moreover, were wearing school uniforms, turn to page 1244. As your opponents are also likely students on a school trip. They must be a group who causes mischief while traveling." Nagisa said, reading from the guidebook Korosensei had given them.

"You guys!" Kayano cried in relief.

Takina couldn't begin to express how relieved she was to see her classmates. She had no doubt that if they hadn't shown up when they had, that things would have gotten very bad for her, Kanzaki, and Kayano.

"Wh...You bastards! How did you know we were here?!" Ryuki demanded.

"That sort of group, who lacks a home ground advantage, will not flee far after the kidnapping. They will surely look for a place nearby away from prying eyes. In such a case, turn to appendix 134." Nagisa said, turning the guidebook to show them the map drawn on the pages. "The map that sensei created beforehand at mach twenty, will be a useful counter-measure against kidnappers in hiding."

Takina was sure that she would never see a sight more hilarious than the looks on her kidnappers' faces when they realized that Nagisa had gotten all of that from the guidebook their sensei had made for them. It truly was an amusing sight to behold. It was then that Nagisa caught sight of Takina. When he sucked in a breath, Sugino, Karma, and Okuda, who hid behind the boys, focused in on what Nagisa was looking at.

"Itamatsu-"

"I'm fine." Takina said quickly, cutting off Sugino.

Karma, though, didn't look too happy. In fact, he looked livid. After being bashed over the head from behind, Takina was pretty sure that he wasn't all that thrilled at the moment. She wouldn't want to be in Ryuki's shoes at the moment.

"So what will you do now, gents? Seeing as you went this far, you'll all be spending the rest of your school trip in the hospital." Karma growled, a nerve ticking in his right temple giving away his anger and annoyance.

"Don't try and look cool, you junior high brats." Ryuki said. Sound of approaching, heavy footfall, reached all of their ears then, making Ryuki grin because he was sure he was getting back up. "Those are the buddies we called earlier. Now our side's got ten people. Good little kiddies like you lot've never seen badass punks like them before."

What came through the door, however, was not "badass punks", but rather, Korosensei dragging along Ryuki's buddies after he had preformed maintenance on all of them.

"There aren't any badass punks here. Sensei ended up performing maintenance on all of them." Korosensei said, tossing the unconscious boy aside. "Forgive me for being late. I was doing a thorough search of the other areas, so I left this place to all of you."

"Erm...what's with that stagehand-like face covering?" Nagisa asked.

"I had to resort to violence, so I was scared that my face would be remembered as that of a violent teacher." Korosensei said before turning to Karma, Sugino, and Okuda to hand them all a copy of his guidebook. "Since Nagisa had a copy of the guidebook with him, I was also able to get to you quickly. All of you should take this opportunity to carry one."

Takina was pretty sure there were other things that they should be worrying about right now. Ryuki was not pleased with the appearance of a teacher.

"You're...a teacher?! Quit screwing around! All of you bastards, looking down on us!" Ryuki yelled as he and his thugs charged towards Korosensei.

What Korosensei did next was so fast that Takina wasn't exactly sure what he had done. All she knew was that in the next moment, Ryuki and his guys were on their knees, looking as confused as she felt. Not to mention stunned and dazed.

"Don't screw around? That's my line. Touching my students, and injuring one, with those filthy hands and speed equal to that of a grounded fly...don't make me laugh." Korosensei told them.

"Tch. So the elite even have specially-prepared teachers, huh." Ryuki said, getting to his feet and pulling a knife. "You look down on us from you high horse too, don't you. Making fun of us, thinking we're some dumbass high school."

"We are not elites. It is true that they are students from a notable school, but within it's walls, they are referred to as "leftovers" and their class is the target of discrimination. And yet they face **the variety of things** encouraged there with a truly positive outlook. They do not drag other through the mud like you do. School and status have nothing to do with it. Whether a fish lives in a clear stream or a water ditch, so long as it continues swimming forward, it will grow up beautifully. Now then, my students, let's perform some maintenance on them, by teaching their bodies the basics of school trips." Korosensei said.

Takina winced when Karma, Nagisa, Sugino, and Okuda whacked Ryuki and his buddies over the head with their guidebooks. She had a feeling that Ryuki and his guys wouldn't be waking up for a while. Which was fine with her. With that, Nagisa, Sugino, and Karma cut Takina, Kanzaki, and Kayano free. With her hands free, Takina rubbed at her wrists as the girls swarmed her. It took her a moment to reassure them that she was fine despite the bruising already starting to color her skin.

They relocated outside, Takina pressing an ice pack that Korosensei brought to her, to her abused cheek. Karma leaned forward as he approached her, eyes intent on her face. When she looked at him, he grinned at her.

"What is it?" she asked.

"You really took one to the face, huh." Karma remarked.

"I kind of had my hands tied. There wasn't really much I could do to prevent his fist from meeting my face. Want a matching one?" Takina replied.

Karma made a noise that sounded almost like snort before he reached out to poke her bruising cheek. Takina slapped his hand away, giving him a sharp look that had his grin growing.

"You provoked him, didn't you?" Karma asked, accurately guessing what had happened.

"I may have...kicked him in the face." Takina admitted grudgingly. "But that's technicalities and I don't bother myself with those."

With that, Takina slipped around him, leaving him to follow her, a grin on his face. Despite what she had just been through, Takina had come out of it without blinking an eye. Either she extremely well adjusted, or the girl just really knew how to take a hit.

Either way, Karma was always amused by her.

-0-0-0-0-

That night at the inn turned out to be very lively. It found the boys getting together to discuss which of the girls they were most interested in. Out of the girls in the class, Kanzaki ended up being the one with most of the votes.

"So Kanzaki's in first place after all." one boy remarked.

"Well, there's really no one who'd dislike her." another agreed.

"So? How'd it go, Sugino? Since you managed to get her into your group." Maehara asked.

"Well...we ran into all sorts of trouble, so there was hardly any time to talk with her." Sugino replied.

Karma chose that moment to enter the room, drinking a soda. He quickly zeroed in on the paper the boys had wrote their votes on.

"Ooh. Looks like you guys are doing something interesting." Karma remarked.

"Nice timing, Karma." Isogai greeted.

"Are you interested in any of the girls in our class?" Kimura asked.

"Everyone's said theirs, so you're not getting out of it." Sugaya added.

"Hmm...Okuda or Takina, I guess." Karma replied.

"Oh, that's unexpected. Why?" Isogai asked.

"Yeah, I mean...Takina's hot and all, but she's so...cold." Okajima said.

"Well, Okuda seems like she'd be able to cook up shady medicines, chloroform, and stuff like that. So I'd have an even wider variety of pranks to choose from." Karma admitted. "As for Takina...she has a devious brain, just like me, and she's sly and tough to boot. If we teamed up, we could pull larger and more devious pranks."

"I definitely don't wanna let you hook up with either of them." Meahara remarked.

Karma shrugged, as if it didn't really matter. He knew which one he really would prefer to be with, regardless of what others thought of her.

"And Takina isn't all that bad." he remarked.

"She must be different with you and Nagisa, because the two of you say the same thing." Sugino remarked.

And that was when all hell broke loose, thanks to Korosensei spying in on the boys and then the girls. While her classmates chased him all over the place, Takina stood back with Kayano and Nagisa and watched, idly amused by the sheer chaos this one creature could cause in all of their lives.

"Somehow or other, it ends up as an assassination after all." Kayano remarked.

"Well...an attempt, at least." Takina added in.

"Yeah." Nagisa agreed.

"So tomorrow's the last day, huh. This school trip was really fun. We got to see different sides to everyone. How'd you enjoy your first school trip, Takina?" Kayano asked.

"Well, it's not exactly what I thought it would be, but..." Takina's head tilted slightly and a smile curled her lips. "It was fun. I'm not use to having fun like this."

"You never went out with friends of anything before coming here?" Kayano asked.

"I've never had friends before. My father was really strict and friends didn't fit in his ideal plan for my life." Takina replied. "It was part of the reason why I left and decided to start calling my own shots."

"That's so awful!" Kayano said.

"Yeah, well...I am who I am because of my father. Whether that's for better or worse, it's who I am. Besides, here I am now. Things are different now." Takina replied.

Nagisa stared at Takina as she watched their classmates chase Korosensei around the inn. Regardless of the impact her father had on her life, Takina was trying to take charge of her own life. It seemed, as of late, that everyone in the class was attempting to do the same. They didn't know if the world would end next year or not, but at the end of the school year, they would all part ways to whatever paths they chose.

One way or the other.

Nagisa didn't know about the others, but he knew that he, at least, wanted to live the year to the point that he wouldn't leave anything unfinished.

After all...life was riddled with uncertainties.

-0-0-0-0-

Upon returning from the school trip to Kyoto, Takina, still sporting a bruised cheek, and her classmates came back to find that yet another student would be joining their class. Expecting to find a cute girl upon entering the class, though, they found, instead, a large AI sat up in the seat over from Takina. Takina, upon entering the classroom, came to a complete stop, blinking when she was confronted with the large thing.

"Uh...what the hell is that?" Takina asked.

One of her eyebrow rocketed up and she leaned backwards away from the thing when a screen came to life, showing the face of the AI.

"Good morning. As of today, I will be attending this school. I am the "Autonomously Thinking Fixed Artillery". It is a pleasure to meet you." it said before the screen went black once again.

" _Besessener dämon!_ " Takina hissed, using the German term for "demon possessed".

"Don't tell me you're scared of it." Karma teased her.

Takina turned to look at him, her mouth twisting slightly. It was clear that she did not appreciate his comment in the slightest.

"What color are my eyes?" she asked.

"Huh? They're a sea blue-green." Karma replied.

"Then I'm not scared. My eyes shift colors with my mood. There's a color for when I'm scared and it's not sea blue-green." Takina retorted, turning to eye the supposed new student.

"Oh? Then what color do they turn when you're scared?" Karma asked, grinning.

"Not sea blue-green. I'm not saying anything else."

With that, Takina turned and took a seat at her desk, ignoring Karma as he tried to annoy her into telling him what color meant scared. She managed to wave him off until Karasuma arrived at the class to explain things to them all.

"I believe all of you already know, but allow me to introduce the transfer student. This is Autonomously Thinking Fixed Artillery, who came here from Norway." Karasuma said, Korosensei laughing in the background. "You better not laugh. You're the same sort of sideshow act. I'll say this to start. "She" is an AI with a face who has been registered as a full-fledged student. Though she will be pointing her guns at you from back there, you cannot counter-attack against her. Because you made a contract as a teacher that "inflicting injury on the students is not allowed"."

"I see. Using my own contract against me. So I'm to treat that machine as a student, despite its appearance. Very well. Autonomously Thinking Fixed Artillery, welcome to Class E!" Korosensei said, greeting the so called new student.

And it was from that moment that the school day went down the drain.

For the rest of the period, the Fixed Artillery continued to shower the classroom with gun fire, adjusting her attacks to better improve her chances before doing it again. By the end of their first class period, the rest of the students had a mess of anti-Korosensei BBs to clean up off the floor and none of them had been able to focus on their lesson.

"...Do we...have to clean up all of this?" came the question from one of Takina's classmates.

"Looks like it." Takina remarked heaving a sigh.

"Hey, Fixed Artillery, haven't ya got any cleaning functions?" Muramatsu asked. Of course, he was ignored. "Tch. Ignorin' me, huh."

"Give it a rest. Picking a fight with a machine's not gonna do any good." Yoshida told him.

The sad thing was, the rest of the school day ended up being a repeat of their first class. By the time she headed home after school, even Takina was highly annoyed with the situation. So, come the next morning, she couldn't agree more with what went down.

At eight-thirty sharp, the Fixed Artillery came to life, only to find she had been taped up tight and left unable to deploy her guns. Something that Takina was grateful for.

"Korosensei, I cannot deploy my guns like this. Please remove these restraints." she demanded.

"Hrmm, even if you say it like that, I can't really..." Korosensei said, trailing off.

"These restraints were your doing, weren't they? This is obviously violence against a student. I believe that is prohibited through your contract." the Fixed Artillery said.

"You've got it wrong. I did it." Terasaka said, idly spinning the roll of duct tape around his finger. "This'll probably interfere with whatever you were planning, but come kill him after you've gotten yourself some common sense, you piece of junk."

"Well, a machine wouldn't know anything about common sense." Sugaya remarked.

"We'll undo those when class is over, okay?" Hara said, giving the Fixed Artillery a smile.

"No offense, but we've got more on our plates then just assassinating Korosensei and you're kind of making it difficult for us when you're spraying the room with BBs every five minutes." Takina added, leaning back in her seat and crossing her legs.

"So there you have it. We're not gonna be subjected to a class like yesterday's." Sugino agreed.

With that, they were able to get through the school day with no hail of bullets. When class was over, they released the Fixed Artillery as promised but Takina didn't look forward to having to go through the whole mess again tomorrow and every day after that until it was removed or Korosensei was killed.

The next morning, Takina entered the school building along side Nagisa and Sugino.

"Hey. I wonder if **that thing** is gonna be there again today." Sugino remarked.

"Probably." Nagisa replied.

"She's probably going to be there until either Terasaka does something to break her, or she kills Korosensei." Takina added.

"Let's complain to Karasuma-sensei, and tell him it's impossible to go to class with that thing." Sugino suggested.

"Let's not be hasty. Things could change." Takina remarked as Sugino opened the door to the classroom.

"I doubt th...Huh? It kinda looks like it's gotten bigger."

Takina and Nagisa leaned around Sugino when he paused in the door way. True enough, the Fixed Artillery now looked twice as thick as it had the day before.

"I have a weird feeling about this." Takina remarked before the screen powered on to give them a full, life-size image of the Fixed Artillery's avatar.

"Nagisa, Sugino, Takina! Good morning!" she greeted with a bright smile.

"Yep, and there it is." Takina muttered as Nagisa's and Sugino's jaws dropped.

"In order to create a sense of familiarity, I used a full-screen LCD display and modeling software for her body and clothes." Korosensei said, appearing behind Takina and her two classmates. "All of it made myself, for 80,000 yen."

"This is so not weird, at all." Takina remarked.

"An abundance of facial expressions and a cheerful way of speaking. The massive software operating them and the memory supplements, also all handmade for 12,000 yen! The amount of money left in sensei's wallet...155 yen!" Korosensei declared.

"And it's your own fault."

Korosensei deflated when Takina bluntly stated this, her hands braced on her hips. She raised an eyebrow when Korosensei looked up at her, pressing a hand to his chest as if he had been hurt by what she had just said.

"Why must you be so cruel to sensei, Itamatsu?" he asked.

"Oh, please. I have not begun to be cruel, yet. And I do believe I have asked you to call me by my given name, Korosensei." Takina told him as she walked away and to her desk.

"You know, I can see why Terasaka has started calling her an Ice Queen." Sugino remarked.

Nagisa didn't agree. He had begun spending a bit of time with Takina and knew, however she acted, she wasn't as cold as she seemed. She merely played the part to hide the softer side of her personality. Why, he didn't yet know, but he knew she wasn't cold.

Takina took her seat and, from there, watched as the new personality of the Fixed Artillery, interacted with her classmates.

"She became amazingly cut over night..." Chiba remarked.

"This is...Fixed Artillery...right?" Muramatsu asked.

"The hell, you guys are being deceived. All of it's just a program the octopus made. Even if it's being friendly, a machine's a machine. That piece of junk's gonna start shooting again without caring about the rest of us anyway." Terasaka growled.

"I understand how you feel, Terasaka. That is how I acted, as recently as yesterday. Piece of junk...even if you call me that, I have nothing to say in return." the Fixed Artillery replied, it's avatar beginning to cry.

"Geez. You made her cry." Kataoka said.

"Terasaka made a 2D girl cry." Hara added.

"Making what you called a "piece a junk" cry...that's a new low even for you, Terasaka." Takina added, shaking her head as she flipped the page in her book.

"Quit saying it in a way that'll be misunderstood!" Terasaka snapped at them.

"2D is just fine. Real women don't need more dimensions than that." Takebayashi remarked.

"And that is why you will die alone." Takina told him, making him hang his head.

"But do not worry, everyone. Korosensei admonished me and I learned the importance of cooperation. I will make an effort to get you to like me, and until we have all come to a mutual agreement I will refrain from carrying out the assassination independently." Fixed Artillery said.

"So please get along with her." Korosensei requested. "Oh, and of course, though I gave her a wide variety of improvements, I didn't so much as lay a hand on her murderous intent. If you wish to kill me, then she will certainly be a reassuring ally."

Takina glanced at the machine out of the side of her eyes. Even after being in the class for a while, she was still surprised by Korosensei. Not many teachers, if any, could claim that they had managed to take a learning, killing machine and turn it into a proper student. As surprised as she was with Korosensei, though, she was even more surprised by her classmates' quickness to adjust to this development.

 _I suppose, in this class, adjusting is about all one can do in order to keep up_ , Takina thought as class started.

All throughout the day, the Fixed Artillery continued to make a good impression on the rest of the class and eventually was given the nickname Ritsu by the girls in the classroom. Takina watched from the opposite side of the room with Nagisa on one side of her and Karma on the other side.

"Looks like things are going well." Nagisa said.

"Maybe. It's just as Terasaka said. She just moves according to Korosensei's programming. It's not like the machine has a will of it's own." Karma said.

"I don't know about that."

Karma and Nagisa turned to look at Takina who was perched on top of the desk, watching her classmates. She leaned back on her hands, tilting her head to one side.

"What do you mean?" Nagisa asked.

"We're learning in a classroom made to teach us to be assassins and have a teacher that can travel at mach 20 as well as regenerate severed limbs. At this point, I've learned that the word "impossible" might not be as absolute as others think. If she can learn then who knows. She might just surprise us." Takina remarked.

Karma chuckled lowly at this. If Takina believe it then maybe it was possible. As she said, who knew.

"I wonder what that thing's going to do after this. That's for the proprietors who made it to decide." Karma remarked.

"We'll see, won't we." Takina agreed. "Loser buys the winner a meal?"

Karma let out a laugh, his lips curling into a grin.

"You're on."

-0-0-0-0-

The next morning, when they returned to the classroom, they found that Ritsu's creators had paid her a visit, undoing all of Korosensei's improvements. Karasuma was waiting for them when they all took their seats.

"You have a contract to "not inflict harm on a student", but they said that "from now on, making enhancements will also be considered harm"." Karasuma told Korosensei before turning to Terasaka. "The same goes for all of you. It seems that they will demand reparations if "she" is even slightly damaged as a result of you tying her up. This is her developers' view on the matter, so all we can do is comply."

"It might be troublesome for the developers, but I'd prefer to respect the students' feelings on the matter, rather than her parents." Korosensei remarked.

"Commencing attack preparations. Please go ahead and start the lesson, Korosensei." Ritsu called from the back row.

All of the students tensed up, ready to take cover from the obvious hail of bullets that was about to start raining through the classroom. Korosensei, though, begun the lesson as requested, all the students more focused on Ritsu than on the lesson. The moment the panels on her side opened for the guns to pop free, everyone begun to take cover.

To their surprise, it was flowers, not guns, that popped out.

"I promised to make some flowers." Ritsu said. "Korosensei made a total of 985 modifications to my body. Master deemed that nearly all of them were "unnecessary for assassinations", and they were deleted, dismantled and reset, but from my study of the situation in Class E, **I personally** deemed the "power of cooperation" to be an indispensable element of assassination and hid the related software in a corner of my memory bank before it could be erased."

"How splendid! In other words, Ritsu, you..."

"Yes. With my own will, I went against the master who created me." Ritsu said, finishing Korosensei's sentence. "Korosensei, this sort of behavior would be called a "rebellious phase", wouldn't it? I suppose that would make Ritsu a bad girl?"

"Of course not. That is perfectly acceptable behavior for a third year junior high student." Korosensei told her.

Takina, her lips starting to curl into a smile, turned to look at Karma in the seat over from her. Leaning back in her seat, she crossed her arms and legs, the look in her eyes that of triumph as their color slowly shifted to that of aquamarine.

"You know, I think I'm in the mood for yakiniku." she remarked giving Karma one of her rare grins.

Okay, so she had been right this time. That did nothing to hurt his pride. If anything, it amused him watching her eyes light up in triumph like that. Takina was merely glad that she had been right. After all...no one liked a classroom constantly under fire.

And thus, a classroom of twenty-seven, became twenty-eight.

END

Kyandi: Personally, if I had someone constantly shooting BBs off in my classroom, I would have already giving them a smack down.

Takina: Regardless of the punishment?

Kyandi: Regardless of the punishment. I don't suffer fools lightly.

Takina: Uhh...

Kyandi: I mean outside my own characters.

Takina: Good. I was about to say-

Kyandi: Yes, yes. I have foolish characters all over the place. I only suffer them because...

Takina: Because...they're basically you?

Kyandi: In some ways.

Takina: Does that mean you're a fool, too?

Kyandi: ...Anyway, everyone enjoy and review.

Takina: Not going to answer huh? Fine. We'll be back as soon as possible.

Kyandi: Bye-bye!


	6. Our Place

Kyandi: Greetings, Kyandiacs!

Takina: We're back.

Kyandi: Yep, and I'll be making this quick, because I have several chapters for other stories to upload, too.

Takina: She's been very busy writing.

Kyandi: Just a little bit. I finally got a new keyboard and, I'll admit, I'm highly amused by the clicking noise each key makes.

Takina: By amused, she means she's been driving her housemates crazy.

Kyandi: Only a little. Anyhow, everyone enjoy and review.

Takina: Kyandi-sama does not own Assassination Classroom.

Chapter 6 Our Place

 _It's huge._

The thought crossed the minds of everyone in the class, their heads bowed forward while their eyes cut up to stare. None of them wanted to voice aloud what they were thinking, but they couldn't help being curious. Thankfully, as one member of the class spoke up, the others were thankful that they didn't have to voice their thoughts.

"Korosensei...why does your head look like an over inflated beach ball?"

All eyes turned to Takina as she spoke up from the back of the classroom, bluntly just asking the question.

"Yes, please explain why your head has become thirty-three percent larger than usual." Ritsu added.

"Ah. It absorbed moisture and swelled up. Since the weather's so humid." Korosensei replied.

So, due to the rain and humidity, Korosensei's head acted like cooked rice. It made sense to Takina...not. She just chalked it up to being yet another odd quirk of Korosensei's.

Grabbing one of the many buckets placed throughout the building to catch water from countless leaks in the ceiling, Korosensei begun to wring out the water built up in his head. It was like watching someone take a towel full of water, twisting it until the water poured from it.

"I avoided all the raindrops on my way to school, but I can't do a thing about the humidity." Korosensei said. "Well, with the state of our school building, there's really no helping it."

He could say that again.

Takina felt like she had a layer of moisture on her skin that had nothing to do with moisturizer. She was sure that she was going to have to give her uniform a really good wash and spray with deodorizer when she got home from school with how much she was sweating in the humid classroom.

"I'm jealous of the main building and it's perfect air-conditioning." Korosensei added.

It was then that Kurahashi noticed something else off with Korosensei's appearance.

"Sensei, what happened to your hat? It's a bit loose." she pointed out.

"How good of you to ask. That's because it's finally grown." Korosensei said, removing the hat to show them what was beneath. "My hair, that is."

"That's a mushroom!" the class yelled back at him.

"Even the rainy season has it's benefits. Let's spend these dreary, wet days in high spirits." Korosensei told them.

That was easy for him to say.

It wasn't that Takina hated the rain or anything. In fact, she loved rainy days. Something about the sound of rain beating against the windows, was soothing to her. Sunny dayas were great and everything, but she liked the smell of rain in the air, the rainbows one could see when the sun finally broke through the clouds.

Now the humidity was a completely different matter.

Takina hated the humidity and couldn't wait to get back home to her air-conditioned apartment.

When school was over, Takina found herself walking home with a group of her classmates. She fell into step beside Nagisa as Sugino begged Kayano for the strawberry off a sweet she had bought when they had left the school. While the rest of them smiled or laughed, Okano caught sight of something else.

"Hey. Look at that." Okano said, pointing.

Turning, they all followed her pointing finger to what had caught her attention. There, across the street, a girl hanging off his arm, was Maehara. Judging by her uniform, the girl was from their school and obviously from the main campus. Which begged the question of why she was with Maehara.

"I'm pretty sure the one with him is Tsuchiya Kaho from Class C." Okano remarked.

"Oho~! He's just as popular as always." Sugino remarked.

"I see, I see." The group turned, finding Korosensei, dressed in a poncho, half hiding behind a tree while taking notes. "Maehara, sharing an umbrella in front of the station."

"Your love of gossip about your students is the same as always too, Korosensei." Sugino remarked.

"This is also a teacher's duty. I plan to release a non-fiction novel by the third semester of all the students' love stories. The first chapter is about Sugino's feeling for Kanzaki, which can't reach her." Korosensei replied.

"Urgh...I definitely got to kill you before that goes to press." Sugino muttered.

"Well, if the rumors I've heard are true, then Maehara's chapter will be a lengthy one indeed." Takina remarked, her attention more on Maehara's retreating form than on the fact that there might be a chapter in Korosensei's novel about her.

"Right? He's popular with girls, so the one he's with changes constantly." Nagisa agreed.

Takina's eyebrow rocketed up when a group of main campus boys suddenly came upon Maehara and his lady friend. The moment the girl saw the others, her attitude towards Maehara completely changed. When questioned about why she was with Maehara, the girl made up a story of how she had forgotten her umbrella at school and Maehara just happened to cross her path.

"Ah, so that's how it is. Lately, you've hardly ever answered the phone when I call, and you suddenly switched from bicycling to commuting by train. So, you figured you'd keep me around for when your new boyfriend's busy?" Maehara said, effectively nailing the nail on the head.

The girl's boyfriend wasn't too happy, and, of course, she quickly denied it. Takina could see the minx's mind work quickly before she turned to Maehara and Takina had a pretty good idea on what she was about to do.

"Hey, don't you know that you're bad news? You didn't put in enough effort and ended up falling into E Class, the bottom of the pack, Maehara. On top of that, the students of Class E don't advance to Kunugigaoka High School, and sooner or later, we'd have lost touch anyway. I thought you might be in shock over falling into Class E, so I felt anxious and didn't clearly state that we'd broken up, but I wish you'd have noticed even without me saying it, though-" the girl remarked.

"There's no way he'd figure it out with that Class E brain of his!" her boyfriend added.

"That's like the pot calling the kettle black."

The punishment for this comment from Maehara, was a kick to the gut that knocked him off his feet. While he was down on the ground, the girl's boyfriend and his two friends begun to kick Maehara, demanding he apologize to the girl for sharing the same umbrella as her. Sugino, furious at the treatment shown to his classmate and friend, started forward, but was pulled up short with the arrival of Chairman Asano.

"Please stop." he called as he stepped out of his car and approached the students. "Violence isn't the answer. You are allowing your hearts to become as wild as today's weather."

The other boys stepped back from Maehara as the chairman approached. Dropping to one knee in the puddle that Maehara had landed in, the chairman offered Maehara his handkerchief.

"Please use this to dry yourself. I'm glad I stepped in before things took a turn for the worse. You were getting very close to being removed from this school." Chairman Asano added.

With that, the chairman effectively defused the situation and left. With one more horrible word from the girl and her boyfriend, they and their friends left, leaving Maehara sitting in the rain. Takina and her friends chose then to approach, looking both ways before darting across the street.

"You guys. You saw all that, huh." Maehara said, looking up at them. "Man, that board chariman's good. Settling things without a fuss, yet with no change in the discrimination. He's got perfect control over the students."

"Well...majority of them." Takina replied, holding her umbrella out to cover him as well.

"More importantly, that girl! What a bitch!" Sugino snapped. "No, wait...if it's a bitch we're talking about, our class has one too."

"It's different. Bitch-sensei is a professional, so we know the reason and focus for her bitchiness, but that girl isn't as sophisticated a bitch." Nagisa said.

"You got a point there. At least Bitch-sensei has a little class. That girl is just awful." Takina agreed.

"Nah. I don't really care, even if she is a bitch." Maehara said, getting to his feet. "Who you like does change, and if your feelings for them have faded, you might as well find someone new. That's what I do, too."

"What sort of philosophy is that for a junior high third year." Okano said, offering him a towel to dry himself with.

"Even so," Maehara said, taking the towel. "You saw how she was just now, right? In mere seconds, she entered a guilty "excuse mode". She then did an immediate about-face and shifted to "attack mode". "Come to think of it, this guy is from Class E. So whatever I say or do, I'm in the right." That sort of thinking. Before long, it became a succession of unjustified anger and excuses. Shamelessly tossing around such cruel and ugly words...it's kinda sad, and frightening. Maybe all people are like that. I wonder if I...would also end up acting like that, if I was faced with a weak opponent."

All it took was one look at her all of her friends faces for Takina to realize...they had wondered the same thing themselves. They had all, at one point, wondered if they would have acted the same way if it had been them on the opposing side.

"Well, not me."

Maehara looked up at Takina when she said this.

"What do you mean, Takina?" Sugino asked.

"I mean, I don't ever wonder. I'm aware of who I am as a person. Whether I'm in E Class or on the main campus...I'd still hate those snobs. For me, there is no other shoe, per say. But, I can understand you're wondering. Social pressure, at our age, is ridiculous and this injustice isn't right." Takina explained.

"Well, retaliate." Takina and her classmate turned to Korosensei when he spoke, Takina cringing at just how large Korosensei's head had gotten in the short time it had been exposed to the rain. "For the unreasonable humiliation you received. The powerless would simply accept the situation, but all of you are strong. You have an assassin's power of killing a target without being noticed or leaving proof."

"What are you scheming, Korosensei?" Maehara asked, chuckling.

"An eye for an eye. Let's give them an even greater does of humiliation." Korosensei replied.

Takina blinked for a moment as she looked at the expressions on her friends' faces. Slowly, a grin curled her lips. Now this was more her speed. She wasn't going to miss this for a second.

"Count me in."

-0-0-0-0-

"I can't believe I'm doing this."

Takina heaved a sigh as she leaned back against the trunk of a tree she was currently sitting in. From her position there, she peered through a pair of binoculars. After deciding on their plan of action for getting back at the girl who had dissed Maehara, Takina, who was good with knives, was put on a team with Maehara, Isogai, and Okano. She had been sent ahead to scout a good spot and now sat in a tree, watching the cafe where the girl and her boyfriend sat.

It was from there that she watched as Nagisa and Kayano arrived at the cafe, both dressed up and disguised as an old couple.

"I will give Sugaya one thing...he really is quite skilled." Takina remarked.

In order to pull off their plan, Sugino and Sugaya were running the operation from a private house across from the cafe while Kurahashi and Yada distracted the landlord. Takina's phone rang then, and she answered it, dropping the binoculars to let them hand around her neck.

"Yeah?" she asked.

" _You in place yet?_ " came Isogai's voice from the other end of the phone.

"Yes. I found a lovely older woman who's in need of a few pesky branches being trimmed. Want to come help me out?" Takina asked, smiling down at the woman who waited below.

" _Roger that. Text us the location._ " Isogai told her.

Takina hung up and turned back to the lady waiting below. Giving her a smile that her classmates would classify as fake, Takina dropped down to join her below.

"Don't worry, ma'am. My friends and I will take good care of those branches for you." Takina told the woman.

"Are you sure? It would be such a help." the woman told her.

"Oh, it would be our pleasure." Takina assured.

Definitely a pleasure.

Takina didn't have long to wait before Isogai, Maehara and Okano showed up. Working quickly, the four climbed the tree, finding just the right location for their part of the plan.

"Nice location." Isogai told Takina.

"It should work for what we need to do." Maehara agreed.

"I thought so." Takina remarked from where she stood on a tree branch over the boys' heads. "What's the status?"

"Sugino just sent a text saying they're rushing this way." Isogai told her.

It was a rather brilliant plan, if Takina was to be honest. Nagisa was to play the part of a distraction while Kayano locked herself in the cafe's bathroom in order to keep it occupied. While the snotty students were distracted by Nagisa, Chiba and Hayami would shoot special pellets into their cups. Special pellets Okuda made that would cause quite a lot of bowel irritation and send the two rushing for the bathroom where Kayano was holed up.

With the bathroom occupied, the two would be forced to rush down the road below in order to get to the nearest convenience store in order to use that bathroom. When they passed below would be when Takina's group would act out their part. Upon seeing the two fast-approaching figures running down the street as if their lives depended on it, Takina silently vowed to never anger Okuda. The last thing she needed was for the other girl to slip one of those pellets into her drink.

"Ooh. Here they come." Maehara said, spotting the two as well. "Right on time. They've got a lot of pride, after all...they'd never even think about asking to use the bathroom in one of these private houses."

"Then shall we teach them a lesson and knock their pride down a few pegs?" Takina asked, drawing her blade along with her classmates.

Striking quickly, the four cut their respective branches just as the two passed below. In a rush of leaves, twigs and water, the branches crashed down on top of the two, soaking them to the bone. Abandoning their umbrellas, the two were driven to continue rushing down the streets by their rumbling stomachs.

"Haha. They really don't have any time to figure out the situation." Okano remarked.

"Can you blame them? I asked Okuda about those pellets and from what she told me, she packed them with enough magnesium to keep the two in the bathroom for the rest of the day and possibly all night, too." Takina remarked.

"Thanks so much for cutting those troublesome branches for me." the old woman below called up to them. "You children are so skilled and agile."

"It was nothing. It's all because we do special ambu-" Takina cut Isogai off by elbowing him in the shoulders. "Um, tree climbing training."

The four dropped from the tree, Takina giving the woman a smile that had her classmates looking at her weirdly.

"It was our pleasure to be of help. ma'am. You have a good day." Takina told her.

Takina waved to the old lady as they left her yard. Only when they were in the clear did the smile leave Takina's face. Shedding the windbreaker she had put on over her school uniform, Takina threw it over her shoulder.

"You know, if we didn't know you, we could almost believe that smile was genuine." Maehara told her.

"Contrary to popular belief, I do smile, now and then." Takina told him. "I'm just not one of those people that walks around with a smile on their face all the time. If you want that, then go to Kayano."

Maehara held up his hands in surrender, which had one corner of Takina's mouth twitching, as if she was fighting off another smile. Maehara grinned, leaning closer to Takina, peering at her face.

"Is that a smile I see?" he asked.

"You're imagining things. I have no reason to smile right now." Takina told him, turning her face from him.

Maehara, with Okano and Isogai laughing in the background, continued to tease Takina as they made their way to meet up with the others. When they rejoined their classmates, everyone had already changed back into their uniforms.

"Well then...that was quite refreshing, wouldn't you say?" Korosensei asked. "Making a mad rush to the bathroom while looking dishevelled will be extremely humiliating for those two"

"Erm...how to put this...Thanks." Maehara said, turning to look at his friends and teacher. "For doing all of this for me."

"What's the matter, Maehara? Do you still believe that you are the sort of person who would calmly torment the weak?" Korosensei asked.

"No. Watching everyone just now, I realized it would be impossible for me. At first glance, you guys don't seem strong, but everyone possesses a hidden weapon they can rely on. A ton of weapons that I don't have. I even got to see Takina's creepy smile." Maehara remarked.

"Whose smile is creepy? I dare you to repeat that." Takina told him, her eyes narrowing.

Maehara held his hands up before, apologizing so not to get hit by Takina.

"That's how things are." Korosensei said, patting Maehara on the back a little too hard. "Strength and weakness can't be determined by sight alone. That's why you, who study while attempting assassinations in this class, will likely find it difficult to look down on the weak in the future."

"Yeah. I think you're right, Korosensei." Maehara said before he realized what time it was. "Crap. I've got a dinner date with a girl from another school. Later, guys. Thanks again, and see you tomorrow!"

With that, Maehara ran off, leaving his classmates and teacher staring after him with dumbfounded looks on their faces. Takina heaved a sigh, propping her hands on her hips as she shook her head.

"You'd think he'd learn but I guess there's no hope for the frivolous." Takina remarked before turning away. "I'm going home. See you."

While she would have liked the whole thing to end with Maehara learning that he needed to be a little more exclusive with his romantic life, Takina had actually had fun. Walking away from her classmates, she could no longer hold back the smile she had been fighting. So maybe she was a little more amused with the whole thing than she had been letting on.

Just a little bit.

-0-0-0-0-

 _So bored..._

Takina heaved a silent sigh, blowing her bangs out of her face. Today found her staring off into space as Irina went on about mispronounciations and the difference between "l" and "r" when speaking English. Takina, being a foreigner from overseas, hereself, already knew how to speak English, so the lesson held no interest for her.

And the spaced out look on her face, was what led Irina to call on her.

"Takina, come up here."

Takina snapped to attention, her eyes focusing in on Irina. Heaving a sigh, Takina got to her feet and headed for the front of the class. Once she was standing before Irina, the woman turned to the sentence written on the board in English.

"Read this aloud." Irina demanded.

Takina wanted to heave another sigh, but she held it in and turned to the board, reading the sentence out loud. Of course, she read it perfectly, pronouncing it like a native speaker. When she was done, she turned to Irina.

"Done. Can I go back to my seat now?" she asked.

Irina eyed her for a moment, her hands on her hips, but, finally, she gave a nod.

"Now for your reward..."

Irina trailed off, leaning towards Takina...who instantly shoved a hand in her face, pushing it back away from her.

"No thanks. I think I can do without you sticking your tongue down my throat." Takina told her.

Which was something Irina did these days. It had started off with her claiming that those who messed up, would receive a deep kiss as punishment, but in the end, Irina did it regardless of if a person got it right or wrong. Taking really didn't feel like being kissed by another female. Irina zeroed in on this, as well as the possible reason behind it.

"You haven't had your first kiss, yet, have you?" Irina asked, pulling Takina's hand away from her face.

"That's none of your business. And not everyone is so quick to spread their affections like you and Maehara." Takina retorted.

"Hey!" Maehara exclaimed from his desk.

"Can you really argue?" Takina asked him. "Really?"

Maehara opened his mouth, like he was about to argue, but he could see her point, so he merely closed his mouth and looked away from her.

"That's what I thought." Takina remarked, turning back to Irina. "Keep your kiss, and in case you forgot...I already speak English."

Judging from the look on Irina's face when Takina said that, Takina had no problem believing that she had, in fact, forgotten that little tidbit. Shaking her head, Takina walked away from Irina and back to her desk. Sometimes she had to wonder if Irina even had a working brain in her head.

The following day only cemented the thought in Takina's mind.

During their PE class, after watching Irina and some older man stalk around their building, following Karasuma, Karasuma finally explained things to them. Apparently the older man was Irina's master, the one who had taught her how to be an assassin and the two had gotten into a little spat the day before leading to Korosensei suggesting a competition of skills. The goal of the competition was that, before the day was done, one of them had to "kill" Karasuma, using one of the anti-Korosensei knives.

It took all of Takina's self-control not to break out in laughter.

Forget the fact that Karasuma was a lethal force all on his own, but to pit Irina of all people against him? The woman's charms had never, not even once, worked on the man, what made Irina think it would work now? Then again, if there was one thing Takina had learned in just the last month or two, it was that one could always expect the unexpected because it was bound to happen.

Who knew, Irina could surprise them all.

"...and that's the situation." Karasuma said, finishing explaining the whole mess to the class. "It's an irritating one, but it won't influence your class time. Just continue like always. We'll end today's PE class there. Dismissed!"

Takina got to her feet, dusting off the back of her shorts. She had just turned to head inside with the rest of her classmates when they heard Irina call out to Karasuma with a sing-song voice.

"Karasuma-sensei~! Thanks for all your hard work. You must be thirsty, right? Here's a cold drink for you!" Irina said, offering him a drink from a thermus she was carrying.

Takina wanted to fall over out of sheer embarrassment for the woman. It was so obviously a trap that it wasn't funny. The woman only made it even worse when, after Karasuma refused, she pretended to slip and fall, crying out for Karasuma to carry her. Takina didn't blame Karasuma when he walked away from her, all but grinding his teeth together in annoyance. Two of the boys helped Irina to her feet.

"Bitch-sensei..." Isogai started.

"I know you're blond, but really, just how stupid can you be?"

Irina jolted when Takina, ever the blunt one, just came out and said the first thing on her mind.

"Listen here, you little brat-"

"I mean even a toddler wouldn't have fallen for that. You're hair dye must be getting to your brain." Takina continued, cutting on Irina and, in the process, cutting the woman down.

"I'll have you know, I'm a natural blonde!" Irina snapped.

"Yes, because that's so what you should be focusing on right now." Takina retorted.

"She's kind of got a point." Isogai admitted.

"Like I really have a choice! Using my charms on an acquaintance just ends up being unnatural, no matter how I do it!" Irina snapped at them. "Even a cabaret girl would act awkwardly if she suddenly had her father as a customer, y'know?! It's the same concept!"

"No, it really isn't. You know that old saying, "An old dog can't learn new tricks"?" Takina asked, Irina nodding. "Yeah, well...it's wrong. All you really need against Karasuma-sensei, is the element of surprise. Try changing it up instead of going with the obvious. You'd be surprised at how well it'll work."

With that, Takina headed inside to change. Irina watched Takina walked away. If she wasn't mistaken that could almost be taken as Takina being...encouraging.

As the day went on, Takina kind grew bored with the whole thing. From what she heard, later on, Irina's master ended up dropping out due to an injury he acquired when he attacked Karasuma in a full frontal assault. Even Takina could tell that that had been a bad idea. By lunch time, the others were betting on rather Irina would be able to pull it off or not.

"Hey, look at that, Nagisa, Takina."

Takina and Nagisa, who were eating their lunch together, looked up when Karma called out to them. The boy was standing at the window, food in hand, looking out. Getting up, the two approached the window to see what Karma was looking at. Outside, they found Karasuma eating his lunch under a tree.

"Ah. Karasuma-sensei often eats lunch over there." Nagisa told Karma.

"The man is a little too anti-social, sometimes." Takina remarked.

Not that she really had room to talk.

Takina perked up then when she noticed Irina approaching Karasuma, an anti-Korosensei knife in her hand for all to see. Even from where she stood, Takina could tell that Karasuma had tensed up the moment he noticed Irina.

"There's a lone woman approaching him." Karma said, sounding a little too cheerful.

"Bitch-sensei's sure got commitment." Kayano remarked.

The students watched from the windows as Irina approached Karasuma, turning on the charm as she removed her blazer and dropped it on Karasuma's leg. Then, with a seductive smile on her face, she pranced herself around the tree Karasuma was leaning against, talking all the while. By this point, all of the students were gathered around the windows, watching intently.

Then Irina peeked around the opposite side of the tree, Karasuma tensing even further. What happened next, surprised them all. With a yank of her hand, a wire attached to her blazer caught on Karasuma's leg, yanking it to the side and throwing the man off balance, In that moment, she jumped him, knocking him back onto his back and landing on top of him, straddling his stomach.

"Uooh! She got the drop on Karasuma-sensei!" Sugino cheered from the other said of Kanzaki.

Takina watched as, taking advantage of his surprise, Irina gripped her knife in both hands and stabbed it towards Karasuma's chest. Karasuma reacted quickly, catching her hands with just a few inches between him and the tip of the rubber blade. Irina struggled, trying to push the knife down, but when it came to physical strength, there was no way Irina could beat Karasuma.

So, she resorted to what she knew best.

Irina turned on the charm, putting a wounded look on her face as she pleaded with him. Though it seemed to annoy Karasuma, the man heaved a sigh and let go of her hand, letting her land the blow. Later on, he claimed it was simply because he didn't want to listen to her whine because she couldn't kill him, but Takina had a feeling it was something completely different.

After all...Karasuma wasn't heartless.

END

Kyandi: Sorry if I missed a few mistakes, here and there.

Takina: She was half asleep while editing the chapter.

Kyandi: That and I suck at editing my own work.

Takina: Only a little.

Kyandi: Yeah, sure, we'll go with that. Anywho, I'm sleepy and still have one more chapter to go.

Takina: Then shall we wrap this up?

Kyandi: Yes. Everyone, enjoy and review.

Takina: We'll return as soon as possible.

Kyandi: Bye-bye!


	7. Welcome Itona

Kyandi: Hey, Kyandiacs! Sorry I took so long to get this chapter out.

Takina: Plain and simple...she follows her muse.

Kyandi: Yep. So, to make it up to all of you, this chapter is a little longer than normal.

Takina: Don't forget to tell them about the vote.

Kyandi: Right! Well, as you all know, October starts in another day and that means Halloween. I have a really epic Halloween special I want to write, but I couldn't decide on what fandom to do it for, so I have a poll on my bio page that you can all go vote on.

Takina: Better hurry, because she's only going to leave it up until October 10th.

Kyandi: Right, so go vote on that. Now, let's move on with the chapter. Everyone, enjoy and review.

Takina: Kyandi-sama does not own Assassination Classroom.

Chapter 7 Welcome Itona

For the next few days, Takina found herself falling into somewhat of a monotone routine. Even with the assassination element to her class and the constant attempts on Korosensei's life, she was starting to find her days a little boring and repetitive.

And today was no different.

It was during the school day and Takina was idly cleaning out from under her nails when she heard Isogai ask Korosensei a question while firing a shot at him.

"You're certainly in a good mood, Korosensei. Do you have something planned after school?"

"Yep. I'm going to Hawaii to see a movie. It was only released in America a short while ago, so I'm looking forward to it." Korosensei replied, dodging the bullet easily.

"No way. That's not fair, sensei." Nakamura pouted.

"Mach twenty speed is utterly perfect for times like these." Korosensei replied, holding up the magazine he had been flipping through, to show the movie he was going to see.

"'Sonic Ninja"?"

When one of her classmates said this, Takina, who was sitting with Karma and Nagisa, looked up, the other two doing so, as well. The conversation now had their full, undivided attention.

"Oooh, it's that superhero flick. Tell us what you thought about it tomorrow." Isogai remarked.

After school, Takina, Karma, and Nagisa caught Korosensei outside before he could take off to go see his movie. Though, Karma and Nagisa were surprised to see Takina was interested.

"Korosensei, please take us with you, too." Nagisa called out, making their teacher look back at them. "We were just talking about wanting to see that movie."

"Oh? You like that sort of thing?" Korosensei asked.

"I love it! I've been waiting forever for the sequel to come out." Nagisa said.

"You liking superhero movies is rather unexpected, Karma. And the same with you, Takina." Korosensei remarked, looking at the two.

"I like the director. It's unusual for him to work on a film based in American comics." Karma replied.

"As for me, I'm particularly fond of one of the screen writers. Projects she works on are usually very good, so I'm curious." Takina added.

"I would like to go as well, Nagisa."

All attention was drawn to Nagisa's pocket, where his phone was tucked away. Pulling his phone out, Nagisa found Ritsu on his phone screen.

"Ritsu...why are you in my phone?" Nagisa asked.

"This is to facilitate sharing information with everyone. I have downloaded my terminal into everyone's cell phones. Please call me "Mobile Ritsu"." Ritsu told him, giving him a salute.

"Well, invasion of privacy laws aside, it could come in handy." Takina remarked, shrugging her shoulders.

"I would like to experience Korosensei's mach-speed take off once more. The camera image might become assassination reference material." Ritsu added.

With that decided, Korosensei tucked Takina, Karma, and Nagisa between the layers of his clothes, only their heads peeking up out of the collar. Takina instantly felt like an idiot.

"Karma, Takina...I didn't put much thought into it when I asked, but aren't we kinda doing something unbelievable?" Nagisa asked.

"Guess so. We didn't think as far as our own safety." Karma replied.

"I'm less concerned with our safety and more with how utterly ridiculous we look at this moment." Takina added.

"Don't worry. I'll accelerate slowly to prevent it from taking your bodies by surprise." Korosensei said before he took off.

"You call this slowly?!" Takina instantly asked as the wind whipped past them.

"So fast!" Nagisa exclaimed.

"Ahahaha! Awesome. I can already see the Pacific Ocean!" Karma called out.

"Huh? I don't really feel or hear the wind, Korosensei. Your head is repelling almost all of it." Nagisa pointed out.

"That's a good eye you have, Nagisa. The secret lies in sensei's skin. My head is usually soft, but it solidifies under high pressure. As such, I won't even succumb to mach-speed wind pressure. Flying at supersonic speeds involves advanced laws of physics that you don't know yet. But there is something much more familiar to you that works off a principle similar to sensei's skin." Korosensei said as he proceeded to give them a physics lesson, complete with visual aids. "Let's have a little lesson on that "Dilitancy Phenomenon". First, we'll mix potato starch with water..."

Takina found herself glancing down at the water passing below them and wondering to herself if she would survive a fall into the water from that height and going that fast. When the answer came up that no, she probably wouldn't, she heaved a sigh, resigning herself to listening to the lesson.

"Aren't you going to assassinate him, Karma? Right now, when you are in such close contact, would appear to be your chance to do so." Ritsu said.

"Don't talk nonsense, Ritsu. Even if I were able to kill him now, we'd still drop into the Pacific Ocean at mach speed. We are completely at his mercy. All we can do is sit back and listen to his lesson." Karma replied. "Although..."

Takina reached out, smacking him on the back of the head.

"No. Bad boy, no killing us." she told him sternly, making Nagisa let out a nervous chuckle while Karma grinned back at her. "Honestly...I swear, I can't take you anywhere."

Thankfully, the rest of the trip passed without any kind of incident. When they were back on solid ground, Karma ended up with a smug grin on his face as Takina bent over double, hands on her knees, taking deep breaths.

"You gonna be okay there?" Karma teased.

"Hush it. I'm use to flying via planes, not this." Takina retorted.

"We aren't use to it either and we're both fine. Right, Nagisa?" Karma replied, still teasing.

Takina glanced up at him from behind a screen of her hair. Despite what she said next, Karma could tell that she didn't really mean it. Though she still gave him a pretty nasty glare.

"Do you want to die?" she asked.

This only made Karma's grin even wider. Takina took another deep breath before straightening up. She smoothed her hair back and quickly regained her cool. Karma would give her one thing...she recovered quickly.

The four of them made their way into the theater. The first thing they noticed was just how cold it was inside.

"Woah, it's freezing! The air conditioning's on way too high, isn't it?!" Karma asked.

"In Hawaii, they turn the air conditioning up a fair amount indoors. All of you, please properly equip yourself against the cold. Here you go." Korosensei said, passing out blankets.

Takina waved away the one offered to her.

"You only have two and am I'm use to the colder climate. I'll be fine." Takina said, passing the blanket on to Karma.

She only half way tried to hide her grin when he unfolded the blanket to find hearts splattered across it. Karma turned his eyes to Takina, but she had presented him with her back, hiding her grin from him.

"How exciting! I've never been in a movie theater before." Ritsu remarked as they found their seats.

Takina took a seat to Karma's right, Nagisa on the other side of him, with Korosensei sitting on his other side. Without asking her, Karma took his blanket and idly draped half of it over her lap. Takina turned a questioning look on him, but he wasn't looking at her.

"But this is America, so there won't be any Japanese subtitles, right? I wonder if we'll be able to understand the plot." Nagisa said, wrapping his blanket around his shoulders.

"Don't worry about it. You two are doing very well in English. Hasn't Irina-sensei been drilling it into your heads? And you already speak English, don't you, Takina?" Korosensei asked, Takina nodding. "Also, put sensei's tentacle in your ear. It will explain any vocabulary used that you haven't learned yet. Let's enjoy the film while doing our best to follow the dialogue. Here. Have some soda and popcorn."

Passing the drinks and popcorn down, the four of them settled in to watch the movie. Half way through the movie, Karma had to glance over at Takina when she suddenly leaned on the armrest between them, her shoulder pressing into his arm. When he looked at her, she was leaning on one arm, chin in hand, her eyes intent on the movie. Idly, not noticing that Karma was watching her, she reached out with her free hand, snatching a hand full of his popcorn.

Karma was surprised to find her so into the movie. Takina didn't seem like the movie type to him. Then again, she didn't seem like the do-something-fun type at all. She especially didn't seem like a steal-your-popcorn type of girl, but by the end of the movie, she had consumed half of his popcorn as well as her own.

It was well after dark by the time they returned to Japan, Korosensei dropping them off at the school building.

"That was fun. Now that it's reached this point, I've been drawn in and am really anxious for the next installment." Karma said. "But y'know, the last boss being the heroine's brother was pretty clinched."

"That was certainly a little lasp in the writing, but, otherwise, it was actually quite nice." Takina added.

"Through analysis of one thousand Hollywood movies, I can make an accurate prediction of developments in the final film. Shall I do so?" Ritsu asked.

"No, that's okay. You're all three killjoys." Nagisa told his friends.

"Better than a blubbering mess." Takina remarked, straight faced, as she jabbed a thumb over her shoulder at Korosensei.

Behind her, Korosensei was in tears, dabbing at his eyes with a handkerchief.

"A brother and sister separated their whole lives! What a cruel fate!" Korosensei cried.

"On the other hand, what sort of adult would have that reaction." Karma remarked.

"One with the sensibilities of a teenage girl." Takina retorted.

"Then what does that make you?" Karma asked.

"You're really cruising for a bruising, aren't you, Akabane?"

Karma grinned at Takina as she turned her eyes on him. He could tell from a mix of her eye color and the tiny, barely-there smile on her face, that she was joking. Her eyes always seemed to shift to a more aquamarine color when she was joking and playing around.

"Thanks for today, Korosensei." Nagisa said, giving the signal that it was time to get going.

"Goodbye. It's dark out, so be careful. Please write up your impressions of the movie in English and hand it in by tomorrow." Korosensei called after them.

"Ehh? You're giving us homework on it?" Nagisa asked.

"You were able to go to Hawaii for free, so it's a cheap form of compensation." Korosensei called after them.

"He's got a point." Takina pointed out as they walked away from the school building and Korosensei.

Nagisa merely hung his head, heaving a sigh. Karma and Takina, who was walking between the two boys, turned to look at him.

"What's up, Nagisa?" Karma asked.

"This is a first for me. Over the course of five hours, I went to Hawaii while taking a lesson, saw a movie, then came back here." Nagisa remarked.

"It's a first for all of us and, yeah, it's a trip." Takina said, Karma agreeing.

"On top of that, so as not to tax your bodies, he looked after you with the utmost care and attention. I was able to confirm the utilization of his tentacles in warding off wind pressure, dust, dirt, and the like." Ritsu added.

"What we saw today, is something he gets to see daily. Truly a sight to behold." Takina remarked.

"I have a feeling that the more we know about Sensei, the more the meaning of his existence will fade from our minds." Nagisa remarked.

"A truly frightening and dangerous thing, indeed."

Both boys looked at Takina, but the girl was staring straight ahead after saying that. The expression on her face was neutral, but, there in her mood-changing eyes, they could sense something more, something deeper, something...darker. There was something that she wasn't saying, something she wasn't telling them. At that moment, she had a look in her eyes that no normal teenager should have.

"Takina?" Nagisa asked.

And just like that, the look was gone and she was back to her normal self. Perking up some, she shifted her bag on her shoulder and hurried off ahead of them.

"Race you two to the bottom. Loser buys the other two dinner." she called back.

Karma and Nagisa shared a look before they took off after her, neither really wanting to really dish out the money for three dinners. Seeing how quickly she shifted gears, they convinced themselves, for the moment, that what they had seen had just been their imaginations.

After all...Takina was just a normal teenage girl.

Right?

-0-0-0-0-

The next day had Takina frowning as she was forced to make her way to school in the pouring rain. While she was glad the humidity had finally broken, she didn't enjoy the constant rain, either. When everyone settled in for the start of school, Karasuma shared with them that they would be having another transfer student, making that their third transfer since the beginning of school. Though, unlike the first one, Takina, the last two were, of course, trained assassins.

Once done, Korosensei took over class.

"Karasuma-sensei has told all of you that there's a transfer student coming, right?" Korosensei asked.

"Oh, yeah. Well, it's really just an assassin, though." Maehara remarked.

"When Ritsu first came, I underestimated her a bit and had a dreadful experience, so, this time, I'll be on my guard. In any case, I'm truly happy that your number of comrades-in-arms is increasing." Korosensei said.

"Come to think of it, do you know anything about them, Ritsu?" Hara asked. "As a fellow assassin transfer student, I mean."

"Yes, a little. In my initial orders, he and I were scheduled to enter this class simultaneously. By combining my long-range shooting with his close-quarters combat, we would drive Korosensei into a corner." Ritsu replied. "However, those orders were cancelled for two reasons."

"Which were?" Takina asked.

"Firstly, his adjustments took longer than had been expected, and secondly, I was an overwhelmingly inferior assassin compared to him." Ritsu replied.

"Sounds like this is going to end up a bit anti-climactic, to me." Takina remarked. "I mean, we've seen you in action. How on earth can this guy top it if he's human?"

Takina presented a good point, but Ritsu only gave her a sheepish smile in reply.

"It is true, however. My abilities are insufficient to serve as his support. And I, who was significantly inferior, was shipped off first." Ritsu assured her.

"Yeah, okay. No offense to you, Ritsu, but I'll judge that with my own eyes. I make it a habit of never accepting another's judgment before seeing it for myself." Takina told Ritsu.

"You sure yo're not an assassin, too, Takina? I mean, every transfer, so far, had been aside from you." Maehara said, turning in his seat to look back at Takina

Takina, who was leaning back in her seat, arms and legs crossed, raised an eyebrow at him. Tilting her head back, one side of her mouth twisted up in an expression that they could only take as displeasure.

"What do you think? Do I act like a professional assassin, to you?" Takina replied.

"Well there is your fighting skills." Maehara pointed out.

"Yeah, and I already explained that to you." Takina retorted.

"For all we know, you could secretly be one." Okajima butted in.

"Don't be asinine. If I was a pro, then I could think of several better things to do with my time than spending it in a humid classroom all day." Takina retorted, her expression shifting to that of a day-dreaming state. "Like spending all that money from jobs on endless amounts of Lindor truffles."

Several of her classmates were surprised by the near drooling state Takina was in. Some laughed quietly behind their hands while Takina day-dreamed about the truffles she so adored.

"Aren't you already rich, Takina?" Okano pointed out.

"You're right...I have some shopping to do after school today."

And just like that, Takina defused the tension in the classroom. Well, most of it. Korosensei was still tense after Ritsu's tale of her comrade. So when the door to the class suddenly slid open, Korosensei responded by jumping out of his clothes.

Literally.

The person who walked through the door, though, was a tall man, clearly not a teenager, who was dressed from head to toe in all white. The class watched as he extended a hand and...made a dove appear out of thin air. While the rest of the class was simply startled by the strange entrance, Taking had only one thought.

 _What a creep._

"Sorry, I must have frightened you. I, however, am not the transfer student. I am his guardian. Well, I'm dressed entirely in white, so just call me Shiro." the man said in greeting.

Taking, though was focused in on Korosensei, who, after being scared, was clinging to an upper corner of the classroom in his liquid form. Heaving a sigh, Takina shook her head. Korosensei, after being scolded by a few of the students for so easily getting scared, returned to his clothes and his normal form.

"Nice to meet you, Shiro. And what of the transfer student, himself?" Korosensei asked.

"It is a pleasure, Korosensei. Since there are quite a number of peculiarities to his personality, I intend to introduce him myself, if I may." Shiro said.

Taking didn't know about the rest of her classmates, but she didn't like this guy. Something about the way he spoke, had her imagining a snake, coiled and ready to strike when one least expected it. After living around enough jerks that associated themselves with her father, she could tell one from a mile away and this guy reeked of a jerk.

Then there was the way he looked over the class.

"Is something wrong?" Korosensei asked him.

"You all seem to be good children. Thus, it appears you will have an easy time befriending that boy, as well." Shiro said before zeroing in on the free desk between Takina and Ritsu. "That seat over there is fine, right, Korosensei?"

"Yes, it's free, but..."

"Then I shall introduce him." Shiro said, cutting off Korosensei. "Hey, Itona! Come on in!"

Takina let out a curse in German, her arms instantly going up to cover her head when the wall behind her suddenly imploded, a boy walking in from outside to take a seat at the empty desk. It only took one look at the boy for Takina to know that he was going to end up being a nutty one.

"I am victorious. I have proven myself to be stronger than this classroom's walls. That alone is enough...that alone is enough..." the boy declared.

Scratch that, the boy was certifiable!

Even Korosensei didn't know how to react and Takina had to sit next to him.

"This is Horibe Itona. Please call him by name." Shiro told the class. "Oh, and I've spoiled him a bit, so for the time being, please allow me to watch over him."

Takina glanced at Itona, heaving a silent sigh. She had a feeling this one was going to end up being a massive pain in the side. Not that some of her classmates weren't already that way.

"Hey, Itona, it's kinda been bugging me, but you weren't carrying anything when you came in just now, right?" Karma asked.

Catching on to what Karma was getting at, Taking looked Itona over, leaning her head back to get a good look at him.

"He's right." she said, narrowing her eyes as she stared at Itona. "That being said...why aren't you the least bit wet when its pouring down sheets out there?"

Itona turned his eyes on the two before looking around the classroom. Takina raised an eyebrow as he got to his feet and approached her and Karma. He focused in on Karma first.

"You are probably the strongest in this class. But don't worry, you're weaker than me, so I won't kill you." Itona told Karma, patting him on the head. He then turned to Takina, reaching out for her. "And you-"

Itona's eyes widened slightly when, quickly, Takina snatched his wrist, stopping his hand from touching her. When she turned her eyes to him, the color, ever shifting with her mood, were edging in on neon green in color, the look in her eyes sharp.

"Do yourself a favor...don't touch me so idly."

With that, Takina pushed his hand away from herself, crossing her arms once more and turning her attention away from him. Despite an action that could be considered antagonistic, Itona lost interest in Takina pretty quickly and turned away from her, heading for the front of the classroom.

"Even you are weaker." Itona said, referring to Takina, which only made the girl frown. "I think I only want to kill those who might be stronger than me. In this classroom, that means only you, Korosensei."

"Does that talk of "strong" and "weak" refer to fighting, Itona? In a contest of strength, you wouldn't even be able to stand in the same dimension as me, though." Korosensei replied, chewing on a treat that Shiro had presented to him as a gift.

"I can." Itona said, pulling out the same treat. "Because we are brothers related by blood."

If Takina thought she couldn't be anymore put off by Itona, than she was wrong. Everyone in the class froze when Itona declared that he and Korosensei were brothers. Takina couldn't even begin to phantom how the two could possibly be brothers by blood. Forget not looking similar, it was like comparing a strawberry to a pumpkin.

Two completely different things.

"Whoever loses will die. Brother. As we are siblings, there is no need for petty tricks. Brother, I will kill you and validate my strength. The time will be after school. We'll have a match in this classroom. Today will be your final class. Say your farewells to them now." Itona said before walking out of the classroom, Shiro following.

For a moment, the classroom was silent before one person spoke up, breaking the silence.

"...What a douche."

All eyes turned to Takina who was picking bits of wood and plaster out of her hair from where Itona had basically blasted his way into the classroom. While several of her classmates had comments they could have made about her declaring Itona a douche, they had other things on their minds.

Like a pack of rabid animals, they turned on Korosensei.

"Wait a second, sensei, what does he mean he's your brother?!" Yada asked.

"To start with, humans and octopuses are completely different!" Sugaya declared.

"Geez, I don't know a thing about any of this! I was born and raised an only child! If I'd pestered my parents about wanting a younger brother then things would have gotten awkward!" Korosensei insisted.

After that, the school day just got more and more ridiculous in Takina's eyes. First there was the obscene amount of snake food that Itona put back during lunch, as well as his choice in reading material that had Takina wondering if Itona was also related to Okajima. Of course, the whole thing raised the question of how Korosensei didn't know that they were brothers, to which Fuwa supplied them with a possible tale of two brothers forced to flee for their lives and were separated in the process.

At this, Takina could contain the urge no more.

With a huff that could be either from annoyance or mental exhaustion, she dropped her head on her desk, bouncing her forehead off it with a resounding thud. When her classmates asked if she was alright, all she could do was sigh and say one word.

"Stupid."

It was clear that Takina was finding this whole thing stupid, though, the reason why completely alluded them, and Takina wasn't sharing.

By the end of the school day, the tension in the classroom had grown greatly. Once lessons were over for the day, they moved the desk until they formed a ring in the middle of the classroom. Itona removed his school blazer and the scarf he had been wearing, tossing them aside, ready to throw down.

"You must have had your fill of plain old assassinations, Korosensei." Shiro said when they were ready. "Let's settle on a single rule for this match. If you take even one step out of the ring, you'll be executed on the spot! How about it?"

"What the heck. Who would follow a rule like that?" Sugino demanded.

"No. If he violates a rule that has been decided in front of everyone then his credibility **as a teacher** will decrease. It would be surprisingly effective against Korosensei." Karma said.

"Korosensei is nothing if not someone completely devoted to his image as an educator. He'll do anything to insure that our image of him isn't changed or ruined." Takina agreed.

"So his hands are tied." Karma added.

Regardless of the set-up and how clever it was, Takina had a feeling that Korosensei would still come out on top. She was starting to think that it would take a whole lot and extreme measures in order to finally take down Korosensei.

"Very well, let's go with that." Korosensei said, drawing Takina out of her thoughts. "However, Itona, causing harm to those watching will also mean defeat."

"Well then, we'll begin on my signal." Shiro called, raising a hand. "Assassination...start!"

What happened next, left everyone speechless, even as one of Korosensei's tentacles fell to the ground, completely severed from his body.

There, growing from Itona's hair...was tentacles.

Takina, unknown to Karma, had the same thought as him in that moment. The tentacles completely explained how Itona had come in from the pouring rain, completely dry. In the next moment, Takina did something she normally never did...she took a step back in wariness and, if she was being honest, a little fear. She took the step back, stepping closer to Karma unconsciously, when a severely ticked off look over came Korosensei. She didn't need to be physic to know, for a lack of better words, that the shit was about to hit the fan.

"Where did you get those! Those tentacles!" Korosensei demanded.

"We have no obligation to tell you, Korosensei. However, with this, you should understand." Shiro remarked. "He has different parents and was raised differently, but, you and this boy are brothers. Still, that is quite a frightening face you're making. Has this brought to mind something unpleasant?"

Korosensei paused. It was only for a moment, but they could all tell that something had gotten to him. Turning, Korosensei fixed his eyes on Shiro as his severed tentacle grew back.

"It would seem that I need to ask you some questions as well." Korosensei told him.

"You won't be able to, seeing as you'll be dead." Shiro replied.

If it wasn't for the fact that this was an assassination attempt and not a fair fight, Takina would have said that what Shiro did next, was unfair. But it was an assassination attempt and special light beam that Shiro had tucked away in his sleeve was about as fair as the fact that Korosensei could move at mach twenty speeds. The moment the light hit him, Korosensei's whole body froze, seizing up on him.

"When exposed to this pressurized beam at point-blank range, your cells' viscosity will increase and your entire body will instantly go rigid. We know about every single one of your weaknesses." Shiro explained, Itona attacking once more.

The attack landed, driving Korosensei into the floor with a force that shook the floorboards.

"Is he dead?" Muramatsu asked.

"No, not yet." Takina said, her eyes going upward.

"She's right. Look up." Terasaka said.

Looking up, they all found Korosensei hanging from one of the ceiling light after having shed his skin, leaving the molting behind for Itona to attack. It was a clever trick, but from the way he was breathing, it was also one that took a lot out of him.

"Molting, hm...come to think of it, you **did** have such a trick at your disposal. Even so, Korosensei, we are well aware that your molting has a weakness, as well." Shiro called out, Itona going on the offensive once more. "It consumes more energy than it would seem. As a result, that speed you pride yourself on decreases immediately after molting. From an ordinary perspective, your incredible speed wouldn't look any different, but it has a huge impact on such a fight between tentacles. In addition, I see you have restored the arm you lost in Itona's initial surprise attack. That restoration also takes a considerable amount of stamina. By my calculations, your physical performance, which has decreased twofold, is now roughly equal to Itona's."

Takina could see how this was starting to take a toll on Korosensei. He was getting flustered, but, the thing was, when a person is backed into a corner is when they are at their most dangerous. Takina had learned that a long time ago.

"Also, how well you utilize your tentacles is greatly influenced by your mental state. Unrest at the damage taken from those unexpected tentacles, and a confined ring which doesn't allow you time to collect your thoughts. It must be painfully clear, even to your students, which of you is currently the stronger. More over, he has support from a devoted guardian." Shiro said, using the special light beam again, giving Itona another chance to sever two more tentacles. "Fu fu fu. Now you must regenerate your legs, as well. Your strength will drop even further, and it will become that much easier to kill you."

Takina unconsciously found her hand hovering over a hidden anti-Korosensei knife on her person. It was hidden beneath clothes, but, if she really needed to, she could reach it. Though, rather or not that would be fast enough to escape notice from Itona, she didn't know. The boy's eyes had to be good if he was able to keep up with Korosensei's speed. A few people down from her, Nagisa had his own blade in hand. They stood by and watched as Korosensei was force to expend more energy to regenerate his legs.

"It appears you have finished regenerating your legs. Now, then...will you be able to withstand the next rush of attacks?" Shiro asked.

"This is the first time I have ever been driven into a corner. At first glance, this would appear to be an honest assassination bout, but in actuality, it is meticulously calculated. There are many things I wish to ask you two, but it seems that I must win this match if I am to get any answer out of you." Korosensei said, cracking knuckles his students hadn't known he had.

"You still believe you can win? That is quite a big mouth for someone who is undeniably losing." Shiro retorted.

"Shiro, you must have been the one to scheme up this assassination method, but there is one thing you forgot to incorporate into your calculations." Korosensei insisted.

"Absolutely not. My calculations are perfect. Finish it, Itona." Shiro ordered.

The next attack sent bits of broken floorboard, flying all over the place. When Itona pulled his tentacles back, however, they were melting as if he had just come in contact of with some anti-Korosensei material.

"Oh dear, you seem to have trampled the item I dropped." Korosensei said, waving a handkerchief in his hand.

There, laying on the floor where Itona had broken the boards, was two anti-Korosensei blades. Takina's eyes went to Nagisa, who was no longer holding his knife. That was one of them, then where did the other one come fro...

Takina's eyes widened before she frantically begun patting down her person, her classmates looking over at her to find her cheeks turning a little pink.

"Korosensei! How'd you get that from me?! It was hidden **under** my clothes, you prev!" Takina snapped, her eyes blazing an electric blue with her anger. Korosensei gave her his innocent poker face, but Takina wasn't buying it. "Don't give me that face. Only you could have swiped it from it's hiding place without me noticing."

Kayano and Yada gave Takina a sympathetic pat on the back, but it did nothing to curb just how annoyed Takina felt. To the surprise of her classmates, Takina let a long string of swearing in German, only coming to a stop when she ran out of breath. Apparently, the thought of someone, not only swiping her things, but doing so when the object was tucked inside her clothes, was one of Takina's few buttons that shouldn't be pushed.

While Itona was distracted from a mix of what had just happened with his tentacles and the spectacle Takina was making of herself, Korosensei snatched up his molted skin and dumped it on Itona, wrapping the boy up in it like a net.

"If your tentacles are the same as mine then anti-sensei knives would be just as effective against you. The unrest at losing a tentacle would be the same, too. But you see, sensei is just a little bit more cunning." Korosensei told Itona before he threw the boy through the windows and outside, his molted skin keeping Itona from being harmed. "I wrapped you up in the skin I'd molted, so you likely didn't take any damage. However, your feet have left the confines of the ring. It's my win. According to the rules, it's the death penalty for you. You won't be able to try and kill me a second time."

Takina, as well as her classmates, could tell that Korosensei was only taunting Itona, the green stripes that appeared on his face were evident of that enough. And, if his expression was anything to go by, Itona was not happy about it.

"If you wish your life to be restored, then please come and study alongside everyone in this class. There are some things that can't be so easily calculated. That's the difference in our levels of experience. I have lived just a little longer than you and have just a little more knowledge. I became a teacher because I want to impart that experience to all of you. In this classroom, you need to make time to learn from sensei's experiences or you won't be able to win against me." Korosensei told Itona.

While it sounded like the supportive encouragement of a teacher to Takina, the words didn't go over so well with Itona, who seriously lost his temper. New tentacles, these black with his rage, grew back in place of those that had been ruined, the things lashing about without a single care towards those around him. Takina, who was standing near the broken window with Maehara and Nakamura, was knocked back when Maehara tried to retreat from the window after Itona jumped up onto the sill.

Karma caught her by the shoulders, keeping her from hitting the floor or knocking into him. It only took one look at the insane look on Itona's face to realize that the boy had lost it and wouldn't stop until either he died or he killed Korosensei. Thankfully, when Itona launched himself forward to attack Korosensei once more, Shiro stepped in, using some kind of dart to render Itona unconscious.

"My apologies, Korosensei. It would seem that this boy still had such a mindset which would prevent him from attending school." Shiro said, letting himself into the ring so he could pick Itona up and throw the boy over his shoulder. "Though this is his first day after transferring, he will be taking a brief leave of absence."

"Hold on a moment! As his homeroom teacher, I cannot simply let that student leave. Once he joins this class, he will be in my care until he graduates. That aside, Shiro, there is also a multitude of things I'd like to ask you." Korosensei told Shiro before the man could get very far.

"No way, we're leaving. Do you intend to try stopping me by force?" Shiro replied.

When Korosensei tried to stop Shiro, laying an tentacle on his shoulder, he found out that all of Shiro's clothing was made from anti-Korosensei material. Korosensei pulled his tentacle back while Shiro dusted his shoulder off.

"Anti-sensei fabric. You won't be able to lay so much as a single tentacle on me. Have no fear, he will be allowed to return to school soon enough. March is right around the corner, after all. I will take it upon myself to serve as his home tutor until then."

With that, Shiro left, taking Itona with him. Once he was gone, Korosensei buried his face in his hands while the students went about righting the desks.

"What are you doing, Korosensei?" Kataoka asked.

"Well...he's been like that for a while now." Okano replied.

"It's so embarrassing, being involved in serious developments. I'm more of a gag character if anything!" Korosensei insisted.

"You were pretty cool, when you got angry..."Where did you get those! Those tentacles!"." Hazama taunted.

"Noooo! Please don't say those line, Hazama! If I hear them again, I'll want to run away!" Korosensei said, before he jolted, making an "epp" noise when an anti-Korosensei blade hit the blackboard just an inch or two shy of his head.

"You should want to run away from me, Korosensei!" Korosensei turned his eyes on Takina, who still wasn't too pleased with him and had been the one to throw the knife. "If you **ever** take something from within my clothes again, I'll make sure you get banned from every store owned by a confectionery company on this planet! With my father's connections, I can do it."

" **NOOO!** "

Korosensei gave Takina a pleading look, begging her to have mercy, but Takina simply turned her face from him, crossing her arms. Karma, ever the one to pick at such situations, grinned as he looked at Takina.

"So where exactly did you have that knife hidden that is has you this worked up?" he asked.

Everyone turned to look at Takina, who happened to have just a little too much color in her cheeks. Clearing her throat, Takina turned, presenting Karma with her back.

"It doesn't matter where it was, and you aren't going to tell them." Takina said, aiming the last part at Korosensei.

"Oh? Was it somewhere naughty?" Karma asked, trying to lean around Takina to get a look at her face.

Takina dropped her face in one hand, the other balling up into a fist at her side. It was the first time, since she had arrived at the school, that Karma had been able to tease her and actually get to her, and he was loving every single moment of it.

"Shut up, Akabane." Takina said, her voice muffled by her hand.

"What was that? Call me Karma, just once, and I might." Karma teased.

Takina lifted her face from her hand, giving him a dirty look. Her eye color, Karma noted, was edging closer to a mint green. He had never seen that color before, but he was sure it accompanied her feeling frustrated.

"When hell freezes over, _dummkopf_...twice!" she retorted before walking away from him, Karma grinning like the cat that caught the canary.

Despite the subject getting derailed from the original topic, Irina brought it back around full circle while Takina retreated to her desk.

"But that was a real surprise. To think that that Itona kid would whip out a bunch of tentacles." Irina remarked.

"Hey, Korosensei, give us an explanation." Kimura requested.

"What's your relationship with those two?" Okajima asked.

"You've always evaded telling us the truth about you, but after seeing that, you're not getting out of here without giving us some answers." Sugino declared.

"They have a point. We're your students, I think we have the right to know about and what all of that was about." Takina remarked, leaning against her desk.

"It's really unavoidable. There's no choice but to tell you all the truth. The thing is...the things is...The thing is, I'm actually an artificially created creature!" Korosensei declared.

For a long moment, everyone in the classroom just stood there, silent.

"Well, duh. And?" Okano finally said.

"Nyuaa! What a weak reaction! That was a pretty shocking thing to confess, wasn't it?!" Korosensei demanded.

"We kind of already figured that part out, Korosensei. After all...how many mach-twenty octopuses do you know that occur in the wild?" Takina pointed out.

"Yeah. If you're not an alien, then that'd be about the only other possibility." Hara agreed.

"Since he said he was your younger brother, and the two of you obviously didn't come from the same parents, it was only obvious that he was simply referring to being created after you." Takina pointed out.

Though he really shouldn't be, Korosensei was surprised by just how sharp his students really were.

"What we're interested in is what came **before** that, Korosensei." Nagisa said. "Why did you get angry earlier, when you saw Itona's tentacles? Why were you born and what you were thinking that led you to come to our class?"

"Unfortunately, talking about that at this time would be meaningless. After all, if I blow up the earth, everything you wish to know will be reduced to dust." Korosensei told them. "On the other hand, if you can save the earth. After ward, you will al have the chance to learn as much of the truth as you'd like. You should already understand. If you want to know, you have only one course of action open to you. Try to kill me. Assassin and target. That should be the relationship binding yourselves and I. If you are seeking the crucial answers that I hold, all you can do is assassinate me. If there are no further questions, we'll end class here for today. Until tomorrow."

With that, Korosensei exited the classroom, returning to his embarrassed state as he walked out. With the stark reminder of what their goal was, most of the students approached Karasuma later on about extra practice. Takina watched them from a window of their building, her arms crossed.

"You aren't going to join them?"

Takina turned her head, leaning it back some to look up at Korosensei who know stood beside her, looking out the window. Takina turned her eyes back.

"Probably not." she replied.

"Why not? Don't you want to be able to assassinate me with your classmates?" Korosensei asked.

"That was what I agreed to when I started classes here, but, if I'm to be honest...I'm not like my classmates." Takina remarked, making Korosensei look down at her. "They are honestly trying to find a way to achieve that goal, and they're changing as they work towards that goal. I saw that in just a few short weeks here."

"And you are different how?" Korosensei said.

"I don't want, nor need, to change." Korosensei was a little surprised by that remarked and scanned Takina's face, but she continued to stare straight forwards with eyes a neon green in color. "None of you know where I've been, how I've lived my life, and that's fine. It's not necessary for us to be able to work together, but I am the way I am for a reason and that doesn't need to change. I will help my classmates and I will give all that I have to give, but if, in the end, we can't manage it and you blowing up our planet is how the world is to end, then...burn it to the ground."

Takina turned to look up at Korosensei and, in that moment, Korosensei felt like he was talking to someone far older than just fifteen. The look in her eyes was serious and stern. She really was against changing anything, against letting anything or anyone change her.

"I won't go down quietly, but I am just human, after all. Eventually, we all fall. You were human once, and I have a feeling you know this better than anyone else. It might not be me, or my classmates who have the honor, but one day, just like with all humans, you will meet your end. I'm just not too overly concern on the "how". So, no, I won't go join them. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not one who knows how to be social, and I don't need to act like someone I'm not in order to play my part." Takina told him, being blunt honest with him. "Now, if you'll excuse me, Korosensei, I have a cat at home who needs to be fed. Have a good day."

Korosensei walked as Takina walked away, arms still crossed. Sometimes, there were things the girl said, or did, that really put him on edge because there were so many ways it could be taken. He could see that she wanted friends, even if it was a subconscious desire that she wasn't completely aware of, but she just didn't know how to go about it.

He had a feeling that had something to do with her father.

Underneath that desire, there was something else, something he couldn't quite put a name to. Something that Takina was doing a fantastic job of hiding. It made Korosensei wander what went on in Takina's head.

Whatever it was, he had a feeling it wasn't exactly good.

END

Kyandi: I always thank people for the compliment when someone calls me crazy.

Takina: You're a twenty-seven year old woman who talks to herself like she's talking to her characters...I think, in your case, crazy fits.

Kyandi: Maybe, but I still see it as a compliment.

Takina: Because, as I just said...you're crazy.

Kyandi: Thank you!

Takina: You really do take it as a compliment, don't you?

Kyandi: Yep! Now, everyone, go vote, enjoy and review. I'm going to take a nap and get started on more chapters.

Takina: We'll be back as soon as possible.

Kyandi: Bye-bye!


	8. Crazy Is A Compliment

Kyandi: Hey, Kyandiacs! I made a goof.

Takina: Many of you have already read this chapter and that's because she accidentally posted this chapter when she meant to post chapter seven.

Kyandi: So if you already read this chapter, you can skip over to the next chapter. Sorry!

Takina: She's only done this one other time.

Kyandi: Yeah and it was a pain to fix.

Takina: At least you didn't post five or so chapters before you realized your mistake this time.

Kyandi: Right. With that said, I do have another chapter to get up, so, everyone, enjoy and review.

Takina: Kyandi-sama does not own Assassination Classroom.

Chapter 8 Crazy is a Compliment

"The rainy season's finally over!"

With the sun shining brightly in the sky, Takina found herself walking along side Karma, Sugino, and Nagisa after school. While Sugino and Nagisa seemed pretty excited for the end of all the rain they had been having, Karma just seemed bored.

"This's a real season for the outdoors. Why don't we go play in the open air somewhere?" Sugino suggested.

"Sure. " Nagisa agreed.

"Depends on what, exactly, it is you want to do." Takina replied.

"Right. What do you wanna do?" Nagisa asked.

"How about we go fishing?" Karma suggested.

"Ohh, nice. What can we catch at this time of year?" Nagisa asked.

"I have a feeling he's not talking about normal fishing." Takina remarked from Karma's left.

Sugino and Nagisa leaned backwards, peering around Karma at Takina, both giving her questioning looks, but Karma answered their unspoken question for Takina.

"Summertime's the best season to fish for yankees."

"Called it." Takina remarked, her lips curling just slightly.

Sometimes it scared Nagisa and Sugino just how well Takina knew Karma's mind.

"They'll be lured in by the prospect of extorting our bait, Nagisa, or by the chance to flirt with our secondary bait, Takina, but we'll take their money instead." Karma said.

"Come again?" Karma was taken a little off balance when Takina lightly grabbed his ear and pulled slightly. "You are not going to go hanging me out on a hook like some common worm, Akabane."

Karma grinned at her, snickering even when her eyes narrowed. Even to Nagisa and Sugino, though, it was obvious that she wasn't really annoyed or anything. While Takina and Karma went back and forth, playfully pushing each other's buttons, something else caught Sugino's attention. They had just neared the school's baseball field where the school team was currently having practice. The captain of the baseball team caught sight of Sugino then.

"Hey, if it isn't Sugino! Been a while, hasn't it." he called out, approaching the fence.

Takina, Karma, and Nagisa all three stopped and turned, watching as several members of the baseball team came up to the fence to greet Sugino. Takina wasn't sure what to make of this situation, so she stood back and just listened.

"You're gonna pitch in next week's ball game, right?" one guy asked.

"Oh? Come to think of it, I haven't decided yet. But I definitely want to." Sugino replied.

"We're looking forward to it." another boy said.

"But man, Sugino, you've sure got it good." a third boy remarked.

"You're in Class E, so you can just fool around all the time, right?" another asked.

"We've got studying and club activities to do, so we're really worn out."

Takina's eyes went to Sugino's face. Even she could tell that Sugino missed playing on the baseball team and would have loved to have it all back. It was then that their captain, Shindou, stepped into the conversation.

"Drop it. You'll make him feel bad. He isn't one who's been chosen, so there's no need to balance academics with club activities." Shindou remarked.

 _Why that little..._

Takina felt her eye twitch as she watched the smug smile on Shindou's face. It was people like this that really rubbed Takina the wrong way and Karma could see that.

"Hmm...amazing. You act as if you lot were the chosen ones." Karma remarked.

"Yup. That's right. Don't like it? Then this year, at next week's ball game, we'll teach you the huge gap that's opened between the chosen ones, who stand above humankind, and everyone else." Shindou replied.

"That's quite the lofty outlook." All attention turned to Takina who stood there, one hip cocked to the side and idly running a hand through her hair. The look she cast Shindou's way was one that was a mix of flirty and hurt. "Saying such things...it's almost as if you know it's hurtful to the other party and, yet, you don't care. How cruel."

"Not at all, little lady. In fact," Shindou placed a hand on the fence, leaning against it to give Takina a smile. Karma, Nagisa, and Sugino knew he was flirting with Takina and had seen enough guys try. They also knew that he was about to go down in a fiery crash. "How about you wait around until I'm done and I'll treat you to treat and explain it to you."

"Hmmm...tempting, really, but..." Takina made her way to Sugino's side, looping her arms around one of his to plaster herself to his side. "I don't date jerks who have to use a big attitude and rude mouth to overcompensate for something they lack. Beside...Sugino has already agreed to take me out today. Better luck next time."

Giving a shocked Shindou a bright smile that her classmates never really saw on her face, Takina turned, steering Sugino away with a, "Come on, let's go, Sugino.". Karma and Nagisa, both of them fighting back laughs, followed. When they were out of sight of the baseball field, Takina released Sugino's arm and heaved a loud sigh, her hands going to her hips.

"Honestly! It's guys like that that really rub me the wrong way, thinking he's so high and mighty when I'm sure Sugino could beat him any day of the week." Takina exclaimed.

"Thanks, Takina." Sugino told her.

Takina peered out of the side of her eyes at him.

"Yes, well...there's nothing for you to thank me for. We're classmates, right? That means sticking up for each other. Now, how about we go get some ice cream, my treat. I need to wash this bitter taste out of my mouth." Takina said, taking the lead.

The three boys grinned, knowing that this was about as close as Takina would get to claiming them as friends, at least for now, but they would take it. Karma caught up with her, leaning forward to peer into her face.

"I knew you liked us." he said, smirking at her.

"You're insufferable." Takina told him, shoving a hand into his face to push it away from her.

Karma laughed, continuing to nit-pick at her while Sugino and Nagisa laughed at the two. Watching from behind them as Takina and Karma traded one scathing remark for another, Nagisa really could see the two becoming close friends, maybe even more than that. They certainly got along where normally everyone was put off or annoyed by Karma.

That being that, they had other problems to think about.

-0-0-0-0-

The next day, the topic in class centered around the upcoming inter-class ball game tournament.

"The inter-class ball game tournament...hm. Cultivating healthy minds and bodies through sports, how splendid! Still...why isn't Class E listed on the tournament table?" Korosensei asked, holding up the paper displaying the layout for the tournament.

"Class E's not allowed to enter the main tournament. Having an odd number of teams is the perfect excuse." Mimura pointed out. "Instead we've gotta participate in an exhibition at the end."

"Exhibition?" Korosensei asked.

"Basically, it's a show. With the entire student body watching, we're forced to battle against selected members of the baseball club for the boys and the basketball club for the girls. It's a tournament geared toward the average student, so not everyone in the clubs can participate in the main battles. That's why **this** was established as a place where everyone can show their strength. The classes who lost in the tournament can end on a high note, watching Class E being beaten so badly, and it also serves as a warning of the embarrassment you'll experience if you land in Class E." Kataoka explained.

"I see, so this is a **usual** occurrence?" Korosensei asked.

"Yup. But don't worry, Korosensei. We've gotten stronger through our assassination attempts. So we'll have a good match and knock the entire study body down a peg. Right, everyone?" Kataoka said.

"Count me out."

The others turned to look at Takina, who had her arms and legs crossed, looking anywhere but at her classmates.

"Aww, but why, Takina?" Kurahashi asked.

"I, uh...don't know how to play basketball."

For a moment, her classmates just stared at her, silence stretching between them as Takina's face started to turn a little pink in the cheeks. Then, all at once, like someone flipping a switch, everyone broke out into a fit of laughter, making one of Takina's eyebrows twitch.

"You've got to be kidding!" Muramatsu exclaimed.

"Well, excuse me! The only thing remotely sport-like that my father would let me take an interest in, was martial arts. I was home-schooled so school teams were also out of the question." Takina retorted, turning her face away from her classmates.

Laughter spread through her classmates as she frowned.

"Don't worry, Takina. We'll just have to teach you how to play." Kurahashi said.

"I'd rather just not play." Takina retorted.

"What, afraid you'll fall on your face?" Karma mocked.

Takina's eyes zeroed in on Karma, narrowing into a sharp look. Karma's grin only grew when he saw the look.

"What was that? Boy, I will throw you down a well after beating you like a red headed step-child." Taking told him.

Her classmates might have taken it seriously if it wasn't for the twitching of her lips, Takina fighting back the urge to smile. Or maybe that was just a sign of how willing she was to carry out her threat. Either way, Karma grinned like a little devil, more than willing to take up the challenge.

"Can you wait until **after** the baseball game to beat him and throw him down a well? We're going to need him." Sugaya remarked.

"No promises."

To avoid any possible fight escalating, the boys and girls split up, Kayano and Kurahashi pushing a muttering Takina away from Karma.

Terasaka and his gang, not willing to be part of the humiliation they were sure their class would face, left. They weren't going to go up in flames and Sugino didn't blame them for thinking that way.

"If it's baseball we're talking about, Sugino's the only one we can rely on, but have we got any sort of secret plan to win?" Meahara asked.

"It's impossible. We have practically no experience, and against those guys, who've been playing baseball for three years, never mind winning, we don't even stand a chance. Not to mention that our baseball club's pretty strong. Especially Shindou, the current captain. He's been getting attention from high schools for his radio ball. Well, he's the guy who snatched away my role as ace, after all." Sugino replied. "He's first class in both studying and sports, too. But, Korosensei, **despite that** , I still want to win."

By this point, Sugino had the attention of the whole classroom, Takina twisting around to sit sideways in her seat. They watched Sugino as he continued talking, staring at his hands as he did.

"I don't just want to put up a good fight, I want to win. I don't want to lose in the game of baseball that I love so much. Getting expelled from the baseball club and coming to Class E. That feeling has only become stronger. I want to form a team with these guys and win. But, well, I guess it really is impossible, Korosensei."

It was only then that Sugino looked up, finding Korosensei decked out in baseball merchandise, and ready to go.

"R...right. You've definitely made it clear that you want to play baseball, too." Sugino said.

"I've wanted to play the part of the hot-blooded coach you find in sports series. If only just once. Since I can't hit you or anything like that, I'll flip over a table instead." Korosensei said.

Takina shook her head at Korosensei. He was far too prepared for this. That being said, Takina was sure he could get the boys through the baseball game in one piece.

"Lately, all of you have begun clearly stating your desire to accomplish things. Wanting to kill, wanting to win-"

"Wanting to throw Akabane's smirking face down a well." Takina interrupted, Karma's grin growing from across the room.

"In response to that spirit," Korosensei said, ignoring Takina's interruption. "which doesn't waver, no matter how difficult the objective you face, I, Coach Koro, shall train you and give you a winning strategy!"

"Sounds good. To be honest...I'd rather play baseball than basketball. It sounds like something I'd be better at." Takina remarked idly.

For a moment, Korosensei froze on the spot, thinking, before his grin grew and the green stripes appeared on his face. He chuckled to himself as he turned to look at Takina, who blinked back at him in confusion.

"What?" she asked.

When all Korosensei did was rub his hands together, Takina got a bad feeling she wasn't going to like this.

-0-0-0-0-

"I didn't mean this literally!"

All eyes turned to Takina who was currently having to go sit through Sugino and Nagisa handing her one glove after another to try on, the two boys trying to find one that would fit her. There was a frown on the girl's face, her legs crossed as she waved away another glove that was too big for her.

"There aren't any rules stating that a girl can't play in the baseball game. Only that boys can't play in the basketball game. We checked." Isogai told her.

"I don't care if it isn't against the rules. I didn't expect Korosensei to take my words literally." Takina replied, finally finding a glove that fit. "This one fits, Sugino."

"You sure?" he asked.

"Yeah." Takina assured him before turning to look at the other boys. "This is insane. You know I'm going to be the only girl out there, with guys twice my size."

"Yeah, but you make a good pinch runner. In fact, next to Kimura, you're the fastest of us." Isogai told her.

"Not to mention, you have really good motion vision. You're probably going to be the only one of us that can track Shindou's fast ball." Sugino added.

"Doesn't mean a thing if I can't hit the ball." Takina argued.

"You just have to try. At the least, you'll get a piece of the hit and they'll call it a ball. Four of those and they'll walk you." Sugino assured her.

Takina's mouth twisted. She had seen Shindou throw and she had a pretty good feeling that all it took was one hit from one of those balls to plant a normal boy on his butt. She didn't want to find out what it would do to a girl of her size.

"If I get hit with a ball because they decide to see me as the weak link, none of you will ever hear the end of it." Takina promised.

"Don't worry, Takina. We'll protect you." Maehara told her.

Takina looked up at him, the boy giving her a smile and a wink. For a moment, she just stared at him with a deadpan look on her face. When she spoke, it just made Maehara deflate.

"Now I'm even more worried."

"I'll make sure you don't get hit." Karma told her.

"That just makes me even more sure that I'm going to get hit!" Takina retorted, Karma grinning at her.

"We'll watch out for you, Takina. Promise." Isogai assured her.

"Now that I can believe."

Several of the boys frowned. Of course, Isogai, a class representative, would be the one that she believed and put trust in.

"Besides," Karma remarked, making Takina look up at him. "Just think of how much your presence out there, is going to mess with them."

Takina thought about that for a moment before a grin, much like Karma's, spread across her face. She like the idea of screwing with their heads after how much they had looked down on her class.

"Now, that's an appealing idea." she remarked.

While they weren't sure they wanted to know what was going through Karma and Takina's heads, they were just glad that Takina had stopped arguing with them. It was already going to be a difficult enough game without adding in her resistance.

" _And now, we will hold the final event...an exhibition match between Class E and the baseball club's selected players._ " came the announcement.

Takina peered across the field where the baseball club's members were warming up for the match.

"Oi, oi. Why're they so fired up over this?" Kimura asked.

"It's a chance for the baseball club to show the entire student body a good show." Sugino told him. "On top of that, it's a given that the game'll have a mercy rule ending, with us as the opponent. Since an overwhelming victory is the least that's expected of them. Be that as it may, they're going to come at us seriously and without mercy."

"So...they're show-offy jerks with no sense of mercy. Nice to know." Takina remarked.

"Regardless of what we've said up until now, you can still back out." Sugino told her.

"No, I think I'll lay my trust in Korosensei's plan. He hasn't lead us astray yet, has he?" Takina replied. "Besides...I have faith in you, Sugino. This is your battlefield where you shine the brightest, isn't it?"

Sugino nodded, grateful to know she had faith in him, like the rest of their classmates. Giving her shoulder a pat, they joined the rest of their team in lining up opposite of the baseball club. The moment Takina stepped out onto the field, they heard jeers and mocking comments from the students watching the game. Takina ignored it as Shindou faced off with Sugino.

"Only the elite, who have both academic skill and physical ability can stand above humankind as chosen ones. That is what it means to excel at both literary and military arts, Sugino. You, who never had either, are not a chosen one. For those who are not chosen to remain on these ground is unforgivable. You and the rest of Class E won't be able to show yourselves in public a second time after this match." Shindou told Sugino before turning his attention to Takina. "To bring a girl out here...pathetic."

"There's no rule against it. Protest against it too much and I might have to believe that you big bad boys are scared of little old me." Takina told him.

Shindou just chuckled at that, his teammates doing the same thing.

"You can still back down. Leave your teammates and come cheer for me. Else wise you might hurt that pretty face of your's." Shindou told her.

"I'll take my chance. I mean...someone has to knock that smug look off your face." Takina retorted before looping an arm through Sugino's to turn him away from Shindou. Peering back at Shindou, Takina fluttered her eyes at him. "Do me a favor, big guy, and go down before my batting turn. I really hate helmet hair."

Sugino let Takina lead him away, glancing down at her once they were out of earshot of Shindou and his teammates.

"You know, if you keep acting that way, he's only going to continue thinking of you as an air-headed girl." Sugino told her.

"Good, let him. I have no interest in guys that can't see past the facade. Besides...it'll work for what we have planned." Takina told him, releasing his arm as they rejoined their teammates.

"You ready?" Karma asked her as she propped a foot up on the wall to check her laces.

"About as ready as an newbie to baseball can be." Takina replied.

"You'll do fine. You know all the rules and the basics. That's enough here." Maehara assured her.

"I hope so. Wouldn't help at all if I just drag us down." Takina said, heaving a sigh.

"By the way, where's Coach Koro? Isn't he gonna supervise us?" Sugaya asked.

"Over there. Karasuma-sensei told him to be inconspicuous." Nagisa said, pointing towards the outfield where Korosensei was using an optical illusion in order to look like a random baseball lost among the grass.

"From this perspective, he'll be mistaken for a ball. He said he'll use the color of his face, among other things, to give us signals." Nagisa said.

"Oh, yes, because a ball that changes colors is so inconspicuous." Takina retorted.

As they watched, Korosensei popped up and down, each time changing the color of his face in order to relay a message to them.

"What the heck?" Sugino asked.

Nagisa opened a hand book of different color combinations and what they meant. Looking for the combination Korosensei had just used, Nagisa relayed the message to them.

"Let's see, that was turquoise, purple, orange, so...he's saying "Make a killing with this win."." Nagisa told them.

"We definitely have a much larger target, after all." Isogai said, patting Sugino on the shoulder. "If we can't win against guys of their level, we'll never be able to kill sensei."

"He's got a point. They might consider us small fry, but the real small fry are them." Takina remarked, glancing across the field towards the baseball club.

"Alright, let's do this!" Sugino declared, the others agreeing.

With that, they started preparing. For the start of the game, Class E was batting, Kimura, their third baseman, up first. Kimura was obviously not happy as he stretched out his legs.

"This sucks. I'm first up in the most away game you can get, with the school's star player as an opponent." Kimura remarked.

"You'll do great, Kimura. It's only natural that we would start off with you since you are the fastest runner in our class." Takina told him.

"Doesn't make this any less intimidating." Kimura replied, heading off for the home plate.

The first ball Shindou pitched, was a fastball that sped right past Kimura and directly down the plate for a strike. Sugino leaned in next to Takina, who had been watching the pitch closely.

"Well, could you see it?" he asked.

"Yeah. But that was never the issue. It's hitting the ball that's going to be the issue." Takina replied.

"Just follow Korosensei's orders and you'll be fine." Sugino assured her.

She sure hoped so.

Takina watched as Kimura looked towards the outfield for a sign of what he should do. Korosensei gave a signal for their key attack strategy. Tipping the bill of his helmet in acknowledgment, Kimura prepared himself for the next hit.

With Shindou's next pitch...Kimura bunted the ball.

Using his fast speed to his advantage, while the boys in the in field went scrambling for the bunted ball, Kimura raced for first base, managing to take it without being tagged out. Next up to bat was their catcher, Nagisa. Korosensei gave him the same signal to bunt. Even though they had just seen Kimura bunt the ball, Nagisa still was able to get the ball past them and steal first base while Kimura took up third.

It was easy to tell, from the shocked looks on their faces, that they obviously thinking something along the lines of Class E hitting bunts being impossible because all they had to train with was Sugino's pitch, which didn't stand up to Shindou's current level. Too bad for them that Class E also had Korosensei. While Shindou's pitch topped off at 140 kph, Korosensei's pitch traveled at 300 kph.

In fact, every aspect of baseball training with Korosensei had been hell. From the iron defense of his duplicates in the infield, to the creepy whispering he did as catcher in order to distract the batters. Then there was the special training Korosensei put Takina through in order to prepare her as one their trump cards. It didn't hurt that the training also doubled of strength training for Takina, who lacked a lot of the upper body strength that several of her other classmates had.

Now, the bruises she had gained from the training, had hurt.

By the time their third batter, Isogai, had taken a base, bringing them to all bases loaded, Shindou was beginning to lose his cool. It was then that they sent in Sugino as their next batter. Without any hesitation, Sugino took up the bunting stance. The whole thing was messing with Shindou's head. Expecting Sugino to bunt like the three batters before him, Shindou pitched, only for Sugino switch his stance to a hitting one in the moment after the ball left Shindou's hand.

Hitting the ball with all his power, knocking it towards the outfield, Sugino bolted for first base. Kimura, Nagisa, and Isogai were all able to make it to home plate, Sugino landing a triple, before the ball was retrieved. It was only then, with the baseball team suffering a humiliation, that the school chairman stepped in, claiming that the baseball coach was ill and stating that he would be taking over for him.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Takina remarked, watching as the chairman huddled the baseball team around him. "That man added to any situation is never a good one."

"Yeah, you might be right, but there isn't anything we can do about him taking over. Just like there's no rule against you playing for our team, there's no rule against him taking over." Sugino remarked.

"I'm pretty sure things are going to take a difficult twist for us, then." Takina said.

And she was proven right when, after returning from a huddle, the baseball team decided to choke up the infield in hopes of putting a stop to their bunting.

"They've already figured out that all we can do is bunt." Sugaya said.

"And it's just impossible with them being so close! As soon as a batter sees that, he won't be able to concentrate at all!" Okajima added.

"According to the rules, they're free to stand guard wherever they like, as long as it's in the fair zone. It's a different story if the umpire decides it's not acceptable, but..."

"In this twisted school, good luck getting any of the teachers outside the Class E staff to call it fair." Takina said, finishing Takabayashi's sentence for him.

Sure enough, the umpire didn't call them out and the game proceeded with Maehara as the next batter. Feeling the pressure from the crowded infield, Maehara bunted the ball right over head, allowing Shindou to easily catch for the first out against their team. Okajima, who was next to bat, looked towards Korosensei for instruction, but Korosensei had nothing for him.

With that, they got three outs and the teams switched places. Takina remained on the bench, watching as Korosensei popped up at Karma's feet, whispering to the boy about a new plan. Once he was done, he popped up by the bench, only mildly surprising Takina.

"Something up, Korosensei?" she asked.

"At your turn to bat, the plan is a go."

Takina perked up, her eyes turning down towards Korosensei. Nothing much about her expression changed, but he could see the fire burning in her eyes. Though a pretty much indifferent person, she wasn't one to take baseless insults lightly, so this whole thing had a fire burning in the girl and Korosensei could see it.

" _Überlass es mir_...leave it to me." Takina told him.

With their next turn to bat, Karma was the first one up to bat. When he didn't move to take his spot at the plate, the umpire turned to him.

"What's the matter? Go on and step up to the plate." he told Karma.

"Heeey, isn't this unfair, Board Chairman?" Karma asked. "You're defending by getting in the way like this, and yet, the umpire isn't paying one bit of attention to it. Don't the rest of you find that strange? Oh, that's right. You're all idiots, so stuff about defensive positions just goes right over your heads."

Of course, Karma's words had all of the students watching, raging at him. While it didn't do anything to change the current state of things, Korosensei was assured him that it was fine.

Class E got three more outs without any hits and, with Shindou leading the charge, the baseball team took their points, leaving Class E unable to catch the balls or field them properly. As they switched teams again, bringing it back around to Class E's turn to bat, the score was 3-2 with Class E leading.

The first batter up...Takina.

Laughter rang out over the field as Takina stepped up to bat, a bat leaned against her shoulder.

"You have to be kidding!" one student yelled.

"A girl can't play here!" came another.

Takina turned to look towards the students, tipping her helmet back.

"There's no rule against it. And if the umpire wants to call us on this, then he should have called the other team on choking up the infield. Since he didn't, _salt den mund_...shut your mouths!" Takina told them.

Takina turned to face Shindou on the pitcher's mound. The boy was grinning back at her and she had a good idea why. Compared to most of the boys out on the field, she was tiny and he probably didn't see how Takina could even do something like bunt one of his balls.

"Do yourself a favor and just let the balls sail on past. Don't want to get hurt, do you?" Shindou called to her.

"Just shut up and pitch the ball." Takina said, taking her stance. "Give me all you got, big boy."

"Heh...I think I'll take it a little easy on you." Shindou said, winding up to pitch.

Big mistake.

Instead of putting his all into the pitch, as he had been doing to the boys, Shindou let up on his power and speed when he pitched. After watching and swinging at Korosensei's pitches, to Takina's eyes, Shindou's balls were slow. She just needed to get the swing's timing right. Her eyes zeroed in on the ball. Timing it as best she could, she let swing. She let out a brief cheer when her bat made connection with the ball, but that was instantly swapped for gritting her teeth as the force of the pitch, vibrated up the bat to Takina's hands.

The ball rebounded off the ball, the umpire calling a foul as it flew backwards over his head.

"Oh, _heilige Krähe_!" Takina braced her bat against her legs and gave her hands a shake. Both tingled with numbness, the force of the impact leaving her fingers feeling stiff. After shaking out her hands, she looked down at her hands, flexing her fingers. It hurt, but...it was no where near how bad her hands had felt after clipping one of Korosensei's balls. "Not too bad. Tingly, but good."

Shindou stared at Takina in shock as she proceeded to crack each knuckle in order to try and get some feeling back in her hands. He was shocked that she had been able to hit the ball at all, even though he had slowed it down. She should have lost grip on her bat, but she had kept hold of it and was still ready to go at it again.

Picking up her bat, Takina resettled her grip, and took her stance once more, her eyes zeroing in on Shindou who suddenly got the feeling like a snake was watching him.

"Alright, enough of the minor league stuff, big boy. Really give me all you got. I don't like guys that hold back." Takina called to him, trying to be as provoking as she could be.

She knew she had succeeded when his brows furrowed and she braced her feet for the impact to come. If she could just get the ball over the players' heads, then she could take a base. Even if she could only get it past their feet. Actually, she was sure the latter idea would be better. With so many of them choking up the infield, if she got the ball in among their feet, they would be tripping over each other in the effort to recover the ball before she could make it to first base.

Plan of action decided, Takina tightened her grip on her bat. One little, itty bitty hit...that was all she needed.

Takina's eyes, once more, zeroed in on the ball as it came hurtling towards her. She didn't need anyone else to tell her that he had put more speed on the ball and, therefore, more power. Bracing herself for the incoming pain to her hands and wrists, Takina timed it and swung.

Takina grit her teeth against the jarring pain that came with impact, and, just as Korosensei had trained her to do, powered through it. To her joy, the ball bounced back off the bat and back towards the feet of the players. Without missing a beat, Takina dropped the bat and bolted for first base, running like something was hot on her heels, trying to kill her. When the first baseman stepped into her path, ready to tag her out as soon as the ball was passed to him, Takina did the only thing she could do.

Collapsing her body, letting her knees give...she slide right between this legs and across first base.

Cheers went up from Class E as Takina was declared safe. Takina heaved a sigh as she climbed back to her feet, dusting off her clothes and shaking out her hands. Her hands and wrists were going to be sore for a while, she could tell, but that wasn't her main concern at the moment.

Takina turned, her eyes scanning the players standing in the infield, taking in those that would block her way to the other bases. Even if her team's next two batters couldn't hit the ball, if she moved fast enough, she could still stand the chance of stealing the remaining bases and getting them another point. She would need to light on her feet, alert, and ready to go.

When their next batter stepped up, Takina shifted into running position, her eyes continuously shifting from Shindou to the players between her and second. They all knew what she was planning, and the thought of trying to steal a base should have been daunting, but Takina had never been one to back down from a challenge. So the moment the pitch left Shindou's hand, Takina rocketed off first base and bolted for second.

She danced her way around the two boys standing in her way and took a dive for second base when the ball was thrown towards the second baseman to take her out. She tapped second before she could be tagged, managing to skin up her knee in the process.

Two more bases to go.

Shindou wound up his next pitch, the ball leaving his hand as he released the throw. In the next breath, Takina was bolting for the third base. The third baseman cursed when he was just a few seconds too slow to tag her out. Takina wiped the back of her arm across her sweating forehead as she dusted off her clothes once more.

One more base to go.

Rolling her shoulder, Takina readied herself for the final run. This one would be the most difficult since the ball would be right there. All she needed was just a little space, just a small opening that she could slip through. That was, after all, the reason she had been recruited and trained for Class E's baseball team. So, as Shindou drew up his leg and stepped into his throw, Takina dropped her center of gravity and as the ball left his finger tips, her foot left the base.

Her classmate threw him off the plate just as the catcher moved to stop Takina, fumbling the ball in his grip as he did. Seeing her chance, Takina piled on all the speed she possessed. The catcher snatched up the ball he had dropped, jumping into Takina's path. Takina's only opening was between his legs, so, preparing herself, she started dropping. The catcher caught on and charged. Before Takina could shift her stance and move out of the way, his elbow found her vulnerable solar plexus, driving the air from her lungs and making it easy for him to knock her off her feet. Takina hit the ground, curling in on herself.

"Takina!"

Takina gasped, sucking in air only to cough. A few moments later, many of her teammates crowded around her, Isogai laying a hand on her back as he leaned over her to check on her.

"Are you alright?" Nagisa asked.

"He got me...right in the...solar plexus...with his...elbow." Takina managed to get out between gasps of air.

"That's dirty, hitting a girl like that." Maehara said, helping Takina to sit up, the girl wrapping her arms around her abused middle.

"You going to be alright, Takina?" Isogai asked.

"Yeah. Just give...me a moment...to catch...my breath." Takina told him.

"Let's get her back to the bench." Maehara said, pulling Takina up to her feet/

He would have pulled her arm around his neck to help support her, but Takina wasn't having that. She insisted she could walk on her own, and, while she cradled her torso the whole way, she did just that. Karasuma was waiting when she made it back to the bench.

"Are you alright, Takina?" Kayano asked from the fence.

"I'm fine. I'll probably have a bruise, but that's nothing I can't live with." Takina replied, waving off Karasuma when he tried to insist she sit out the rest of the game. "Let's just get back out there. They won't catch me with the same trick twice."

That they had doubt off. Now that one of the baseball club members had pulled a dirty trick, she would be on alert for another one. With that in mind, they went back out for their last chance to stop the baseball club from gaining another point.

To keep Takina out of the way of the opposing boys, as well as to make use of her good hand/eye coordination, they all agreed to place her in center field. They were sure that the other team would continue to see Takina as their weakest link and would hit the balls dead center. It would make fielding their hits a little easier.

Unfortunately, the opposing team had a little surprise for them.

When the first batter stepped up to plate, they revealed that the chairman had ordered them to use bunts, just like the Class E team had been doing. Despite Kimura's speed at fielding the ball, the batter was able to take the first base with ease. And so it went with the next batter. When the third batter was revealed to be Shindou, himself, Class E knew they needed to come up with something. It was then that Korosensei appeared at the feet of Karma, once more.

"Karma. The time has come to make use of your earlier provocation." Korosensei told him.

"Ah...I see now." Karma said, grin on his face.

Turning, he called out to first Takina and then Isogai, gesturing for Takina to follow him. Raising an eyebrow, because being called out by Karma was never a good thing, Takina followed him as he approached Isogai.

"What's in that head of your's now?" Takina asked.

"Coach has instructions for us." Karma told her before explaining what it was that Korosensei wanted them to do.

"You're kidding." Isogai said, sweat-dropping.

"Isn't being hit once good enough?" Takina added, heaving a dramatic sigh that was clearly faked. "Fine, but if I get hit-"

"You have some of the best reflexes in our class. You're not going to get hit." Karma told her.

"Wait...was that a **compliment**?" Takina teased as the three turned to walk across the field.

Karma shrugged his shoulders, refusing to respond to that. Takina made a face at him as the three of them moved in on the home plate until they were standing close, much like the baseball club had done to them earlier in the game. Takina, standing in the middle, stood a little off the side, trusting Sugino to be able to throw the ball without hitting her.

Shindou looked between the three, wondering what they were planning.

"We're obviously defending from a position that will disrupt the batter's concentration, but the other side did the same thing earlier and the umpire didn't say a thing about it." Karma said.

"Now, if he had called your side out on it, earlier, then he would have the grounds to call us out on it now. But he didn't, so if he calls us out now, that would be...how do you say...playing favorites?" Takina said, looking at Isogai, who agreed. "If he does that, then this game is instantly null and void and, honestly, that would make the baseball club look bad. As if elbowing a girl in the solar plexus doesn't already do that."

Takina shrugged her shoulders as Karma grinned. Karma then turned his attention to the chairman.

"You don't have any problem, right, Board Chairman?" Karma asked.

The chairman looked between Karma and Takina, the two students watching him. Now he understood why Karma had raised the protest earlier that he had. It was all in preparation for this. Now they could use the baseball club's tactic without him being able to complain about it. He was well aware that a fielder coming in contact with the bat would clearly be regarded as interference. The umpire's job was to judge whether the fielders' interference was a disruption to the batter's concentration, whether it could be deemed an obstruction.

Since the umpire had dismissed Karma's complaint about choking up the infield earlier, to be fair, he had no choice but to allow Class E's fielders to do the same, regardless of how close they stood to Shindou, or the fact that one of them, was a girl. It was a well thought out plan that he would just have to go.

"Feel free to do so. Those who have been chosen won't let a thing like defensive positions ruin their composure." the chairman replied.

"Huh, you went and said it." Karma remarked, Isogai heaving a sigh, Takina rolling her eyes. "Well then, we won't hold back."

Without another word, the three moved even closer to the home plate, until they were basically on top of Shindou.

"Don't mind us. Go on and hit it, superstar. We're not standing in the pitcher's way, after all." Karma said.

Shindou's eyes turned to Takina who was close enough to standing in the way, that if he didn't hit her, Sugino just might.

"Don't worry about me, big boy. I trust Sugino's aim." Takina told him.

"Fufu...what an absurd bluff." the chairman called, though Shindou didn't agree. "Please pay them no mind and swing, Shindou. Even if you break their bones, Class E will be the ones hindered by it."

"My, how charitable." Takina remarked, reaching up to flick her ponytail over her shoulder. "Well then, big boy, do as the nice man says."

Shindou looked down into Takina's eyes, the intensity forcing him to focus his attention on Sugino as he wound up the pitch. Shindou, as he was ordered, swung with all his might. While Isogai and Karma were able to take a step back, avoiding the swinging bat, Takina dropped into a crouch, avoiding both the bat and the ball. The swiftness of their movements was enough to surprise Shindou, breaking his concentration and making him strike out.

Takina popped back up as Shindou blinked in shock. Crossing her arms, she cocked a hip in a sassy look.

"My, my, all talk." she remarked.

"She's right. A slow swing like that just won't cut it." Karma said, leaning in to stare Shindou in the eyes. "Hey, next time, could you swing with an intent to kill."

"If you can't swing to kill, you'll never be able to put us poor Class E students in our place." Takina added, a sly grin curling her lips as her eyes narrowed. The intensity behind her gaze had Shindou tensing up even more. "Come on now, show me what the **chosen few** are capable of."

At this point, they knew Shindou could no longer do what the chairman had told him. They had messed with his head far more than the chairman could ever hope to, so when Sugino pitched the ball, Takina dropping into a crouch again, Shindou bunted the ball. Karma instantly jumped, catching the ball and tossing it to Nagisa, who caught it and tapped the home plate, tagging the runner on third out.

"Nagisa, ball!" Takina called, popping up.

Nagisa tossed her the ball and Takina turned, throwing the ball to third base. Kimura caught the ball, tagging the second base runner out. Kimura then threw the ball to first, Sugaya catching the ball to tag out Shindou, who had been so shocked, he hadn't even taken a single step towards first base.

With that, the game was over and Class E had won.

Cheers went up from the members of Class E.

Takina held up both hands, Karma and Isogai high-fiving them. Turning to look towards the chairman, Takina found him already walking away. Bracing her hands on her hips, Takina shook her head.

"That man irritates me." she remarked, Karma and Isogai chuckling.

Sugino took that moment to approach Shindou who had dropped to sit at home plate. Shindou looked up as Sugino called out to him, crouching next to him.

"Sorry about that. It turned into a ridiculous wreck of a baseball game. Still, I know full well that as a baseball player, you're way stronger than I am. I don't think of this as a win against you at all."

"Then...why did you go so far to win? Wasn't it because you wanted to say that you're stronger than me with this result?" Shindou replied.

"Hrm...Nagisa always helped me practice my breaking ball pitch, and Karma, Takina, and Isogai's reflexes, as the way everyone's bunting improved, were all amazing. But if we didn't get results, I wouldn't be able to convey all of that. Well, in short, I kinda wanted to brag to my old comrades a little about my current ones in Class E." Sugino told him, smiling sheepishly.

Shindou couldn't help smiling in response.

"You better remember this, Sugino. The next time we do this will be in high school." Shindou told him.

"You got it!' Sugino agreed.

"Good, now that you've kissed and made up," Takina appeared at Sugino's side, draping an arm over his shoulder. "How about I treat you both to a burger or something? Of course, after I get this bruise on my torso checked out."

Shindou questioned for a moment, if she was being serious about the bruise, but when her lips twitched into a grin, he knew she was just teasing. When she held out a hand to help him to his feet, he took it. Getting to his feet, he gave Takina a smile.

"Yeah, sure. Sounds great." he told her. "You know, you're crazy."

Takina shrugged before flicking her pony tail over her shoulder, her hands going to her hips.

"So I've been told, but you know, Brooke Hampton once said, "Take being called crazy as a compliment. It means you've found the courage to be yourself when so many other have not.". I'll take crazy." Takina told him.

Sugino was starting to realize that, when it came to Takina, crazy was the least of his concerns.

END

Kyandi: I always thank people for the compliment when someone calls me crazy.

Takina: You're a twenty-seven year old woman who talks to herself like she's talking to her characters...I think, in your case, crazy fits.

Kyandi: Maybe, but I still see it as a compliment.

Takina: Because, as I just said...you're crazy.

Kyandi: Thank you!

Takina: You really do take it as a compliment, don't you?

Kyandi: Yep! Now, everyone, go vote, enjoy and review. I'm going to take a nap and get started on more chapters.

Takina: We'll be back as soon as possible.

Kyandi: Bye-bye!


	9. Summer Time

Kyandi: And we're back!

Takina: No more messing up on the chapters.

Kyandi: I got it, I got it.

Takina: You said that the last time and did it again, anyway.

Kyandi: It was an accident! Just be glad that I haven't done it more times.

Takina: With how many times you posted chapters half asleep, I'm surprised half of them aren't out of order.

Kyandi: Exactly, so be nice. It's almost Christmas time and you're currently sitting on the Naughty list.

Takina: What are you, five?

Kyandi: Just be quiet. Anyway, everyone enjoy and review.

Takina: Kyandi-sama does not own Assassination Classroom.

Chapter 9 Summer Time

July, the start of summer and the start of the time of year that Takina hated the most.

Having grown up in the Swiss Alps, Takina was not use to the type of heat that Japan saw during it's summer months. More so since their school building didn't have air. It was for that reason alone that Takina was glad that her school uniform included skirts. That being said, assassination training in the heat made Takina a little grumpy.

It was one particularly hot day in July that found Karasuma outside, training the students.

In the four months since he had come to E Class, the number of his students with "potential" had greatly increased. For starters, there was Isogai and Maehara who was a great combination with great reflexes. The two worked well together and, in the time since they had started training with Karasuma, had increased the number of times they could land a hit on him.

Then there was Karma. Though he usually acted lazy, taking the easy way out if he could, Karasuma could always see the glint of mischievous in the boy's eyes. If nothing else, Karma always looked to land a decisive and humiliate Karasuma. Not that that was going to be as easy a feat as Karma might hope for.

Even among the girls, though, there was great improvement. Like Okano and her gymnastics moves. She always managed to catch Karasuma off guard with her out-there movements. Kataoka added to the list of girls with great improvement. Like the boys, she possessed both momentum and a constitution suited for her training. It made her great with close-range attacks.

And, of course, there was Takina.

Karasuma's eyes landed on Takina as the girl stepped up for her turn to try to land a hit on him. As always, she approached calmly, her expression, her glances, and her movements, giving nothing away. Takina, to most, appeared as a pretty face, an Ice Queen, with no cares in the world. She appeared pretty uninterested in the events going on around her, approaching everything with a calm and cool head.

But her movements spoke of something completely different.

When Takina decided to take things serious, her expression would shift, just slightly, her eyes, as they always did with her moods, would shift from their usual sea blue-green to a neon shade of green that showed her seriousness. The girl would, as she was right then, move with a carefully calculated swiftness, attacking with all the sure intent of a seasoned fighter. In the time he had started training her, her physical strength had improved and, now, she could land a hit that actually hurt.

Karasuma took a step back, his eyes following her as she struck with all the swiftness of a coiled snake. He fended off her first swing, only to be confronted with a second swing from the other hand. Karasuma moved to defend against the strike, but only had the shift of Takina's eyes and the feeling like a snake was coiling around his neck, as a warning of what was coming next.

Takina jumped to the side as Karasuma reacted purely out of instinct, knocking aside the student that had just tried to attack him from behind. Turning to see who had managed to sneak up on him while he was dealing with Takina, Karasuma was confronted by the image of Nagisa sitting on the ground.

"Sorry. I swung a bit too hard. Can you stand?" Karasuma asked Nagisa as Takina stepped up to the boy.

"I'm fine." Nagisa assured him as Takina held out a hand to help him up.

"Sorry, Nagisa. I thought I had his full attention. Maybe next time." Takina told the boy, surprising Karasuma.

Not only was Nagisa and Takina an unlikely combination due to the sheer differences in their personalities and strengths, Karasuma was surprised to see Takina willingly working with anyone. Normally, in training, she was a solo fighter, though, she did have the occasional tendency of working with Karma. That, though, Karasuma could understand. Though their personalities were different in key aspects, Karma and Takina did share some traits and, through those traits, could understand each other somewhat. Their strengths and fighting styles were similar in many ways, making their partnership far more likely that that of Takina and Nagisa.

Then again, because it was so unlikely, it worked.

It made Karasuma wonder what the two would be capable off if they had all the right training and all the right equipment.

When Karasuma finally called an end to the class, Takina flopped back onto her butt, letting out an annoyed noise.

"You okay, Takina?" Nagisa asked.

"I hate the heat. Where I grew up, we were lucky if it ever got up to seventy." Takina said, fanning herself. "When I get home today, I'm going to throw on my shortest shorts and tank top and crank the air conditioning."

Several of the others laughed at Takina while Kataoka pulled her to her feet. Kurahashi took the chance then to turn to Karasuma.

"Sensei! Come have tea in town with everyone after school!" she called.

"Ah. I'm happy you're inviting me, but I'm expecting a communication from the Ministry of Defense after this." Karasuma told her before walking away.

"His private life doesn't have any openings, either." one of the boys remarked lowly.

"It's more like...when he's with us, we're separated by some sort of wall. It's as if he's keeping us at a distance." Yada remarked.

"And he probably is." Takina replied. "I mean, he's great, and all, takes good care of us and trains us strictly, but, in the end, we're a job for him. It just doesn't go any deeper than that."

The others agreed with her.

"That isn't true at all." Korosensei said, popping up. "He is certainly an agent sent in for the sake of my assassination, but the blood of a splendid teacher flows within his veins, as well."

"Well, regardless of whether that is true or not, I like him better than my past instructors. I even like him better than my father. At least he doesn't scream bloody murder when I mess up." Takina remarked.

"Or resort to physical punishment, huh." Karma added.

Everyone turned their eyes on Takina, surprised to hear this. Takina shot a glare in Karma's direction, but the boy merely stuck his tongue out at her. Heaving a sigh, Takina pulled back one glove, baring the whip scars on the back of her hand.

"My father, like his father before him, and his grandfather before that, believes that if you can't learn a lesson the normal way, pain will force you to learn the lesson. Needless to say, I was a horrible student when I was younger. I finally learned the lessons, though." Takina remarked, pulling the glove back into place.

"That's horrible!" Okano gasped.

"Perhaps, but, believe it or not, that was his way of showing he cares. He wanted so badly for me to succeed in his world, to have all he had and more, that he didn't stop to consider what I wanted or how it effected me. Looking at the world through rose-colored glasses, and all." Takina replied, waving it off as if it didn't matter. Something else caught her attention then. "Who's that?"

Everyone turned as a big man, carrying bags and boxes, came towards them, a smile on his face. When he reached them, he dropped the boxes and bags on the ground and gave them all a big smile that, for some reason, put Takina on edge.

"Hey there! My name's Takaoka Akira! Starting today, I'll be working here to help out Karasuma! Nice to meet all of you in Class E!" the man said brightly, introducing himself.

Some of Takina's classmates were looking in the boxes and bags, finding cakes and drinks inside. Kayano, of course, was thrilled. Takina, and a few others, couldn't help but notice that it was all stuff from really expensive stores.

"Is it alright to give us stuff that's this expensive?" Isogai asked Takaoka.

"Sure, eat up! I planned to empty my wallet, so don't hold back!" Takaoka said, dropping to sit on the ground. "Please don't think of it as some sort of trap. I don't want to waste any time getting along with you guys. Plus, food taste best when you sit around and eat it with everyone!"

"But...erm, Takaoka-sensei, you sure know your brands when it comes to sweets." Yada remarked.

"Well, to be honest, I love sugar." Takaoka replied.

Takina did as well, but she would never spend that much money on sweets in one go. Takina stood back, watching as her classmates and Korosensei tucked into the sweets.

"Even though you guys work together, you and Karasuma-sensei are completely different." Kimura remarked.

"You're kinda like a neighborhood father figure." Hara added.

"That's not bad at all!" Takaoka said, before draping his arms around Mimura and Nakamura. "Since we're all gonna be in the same classroom, we're kinda like a family, right?"

Takina didn't know about that. Something about the way the man smiled, put her on edge. In the past, she had learned, the hard way, that those who seemed all nice and friendly, usually turned out to be the meanest, most sadistic bastards ever. She had a feeling that this guy wasn't going to be any different than the rest.

"Starting tomorrow, you'll be teaching gym, Takaoka-sensei?"

Isogai asking this, drew Takina's attention back to her surroundings as Karasuma joined them.

"Yup! We're dividing up the labor to lighten the look on Karasuma. He's going to devote all his attention to office work. Isn't that right?" Takaoka said, glancing over his shoulder at Karasuma. "Don't worry! I said the same thing before, but we're a family! Put all your trust in me, the father, and I'll take care of everything!"

After they were done with the sweets, Takaoka invited the class to play a friendly game of soccer. Takina declined the offer, insisting that she preferred to watch the others. It was there, watching Takaoka with some of classmates, that she over heard a few of her classmates talking about Takaoka.

"What do you think?" Chiba asked.

"Eh. I like Karasuma-sensei better." Kurahashi replied.

"But there's really no way of telling what Karasuma-sensei's thinking, y'know?" Okajima said. "He's always got that stern expression and if we invite him to eat or play around, he could at least hang out with us once in a while. On that note, Takaoka-sensei is just a naturally friendly guy. This training might end up being a real blast all the time."

"I don't know about that." The others turned to look at Takina who was watching Takaoka with sharp eyes. "He smiles a lot and he seems friendly enough, but my experience with guys like him, is that soon enough...it'll blow up in our faces. He might smile a lot, but, to me, that smile doesn't reach his eyes. I wouldn't trust him farther than I could throw him."

With that, Takina turned away and headed for the school building. While she was pretty sure that she was right where Takaoka was concerned, she hoped she wasn't.

She didn't want to have to tell her classmates "I told you so".

-0-0-0-0-

The next day at PE, Takaoka gathered them all up outside.

"Okay, everyone's here! Well, then, from today onward, we'll start our new PE class!" Takaoka said, Takina looking around for Karma, only to find that the boy had skipped class yet again. "I think it might get a bit harsh, but when we're done, I'll treat you guys to some tasty snacks again!"

"You're just saying that because you want to eat them, right?" Nakamura asked.

"Pretty much. That's how I got this wide around." Takaoka said, patting his belly. Takina didn't know about the rest of her classmates, but she didn't want to be that big around. "And let's decide on a shout to get everyone fired up! When I say "1, 2, 3", you guys all make a peace sign and yell "victory"!"

"Woah. That's pretty old-fashioned, and a rip-off, too." Sugino said.

"You nitpicker! I'm not ripping anything off, it's a homage!" Takaoka protested.

Takina sat in the back of the group, sharp eyes intent on Takaoka, wonder, if and when he would change his tune and show his true colors. A small part of her, for the sake of her classmates, still hoped that her impression of Takaoka was wrong, but she had had too many experiences with men like him to not know what she was talking about.

"Now, then! Along with a complete overhaul of the training program, Class E's schedule has also changed. Pass this around to everyone." Takaoka said, handing over papers with their new class schedule on it.

Takina took hers, looking down at the now packed schedule. Takina blinked a few times as she looked down at it. Talk about a complete change. Aside from a few hours in the day in which they had their normal studies, Monday thru Friday was packed from nine in the morning until nine at night with training, training, and more training.

"This much is a given. I got the board chairman's approval, too. He said "The earth is in a time of crisis, so there's no helping it."." Takaoka told them. Takina had a feeling it was less him agreeing with Takaoka and more of him hoping this would leave Class E too exhausted and busy to keep their grades up. "If we follow this curriculum, your abilities will grow by leaps and bounds. So without any further delays-"

"Just a...hold a second! This schedule is impossible!" Meahara protested, getting to his feet. "If this is all the time we'll get to study, our grades will drop! The board chairman **knew** that when he approved it! And there's no time for us to have fun either! There's no way in hell we can do this!"

Everyone in the class tensed, gasps of shock leaving the others when Takaoka, with no mercy, grabbed Meahara by the hair and slammed a knee into the boy's gut.

"It's "we will", not "we can't"." Takaoka said, throwing Meahara to the ground. "I told you, right? That in our "family", I am the "father". Is there a single family in this world where the father's orders aren't absolute?"

Isogai and Takina hurried to Maehara's side, Takina laying a hand on his back as she checked on the coughing and gagging boy.

"Okay!" Takaoka called, clapping his hands. "First up is three sets of one hundred squats each. Anyone who wants to quit is free to do so. If you do, I'll use my authority to fill the gap with a new student. There are plenty of strong soldiers who I raised personally with loving care. Even if one or two of you are replaced, that octopus won't run away."

Takina, nor her classmates, liked the sound of that. He could already picture some rough and gruff solider replacing some of their classmates.

"But I really don't want to do that. You're all my precious family, after all. As the father, I don't want to lose even a single one of you! Let's all save Earth from this crisis together as a family!" Takaoka said, hugging Mimura and Kanzaki from behind. "Okay?"

This whole thing was really starting to sound a lot like her father's method of getting a lesson to stick. For people like Takaoka, affection and fear went hand in hand. By applying fear continuously, making the students fear what came next, then by the time they were offered a boon, they would weep with joy at not being hurt again. Typically, the system worked and the person subject to it, was left with it ingrained in their minds to always blindly obey.

Of course, in the case of extremely willful and stubborn people, like Takina, the system only created anger.

Instead of freezing in fear, as her classmates did, Takina moved closer, concerned for Kanzaki as the girl pulled out of Takaoka's hug and turned to face him.

"Alright? You'll follow your father, won't you?" Takaoka asked Kanzaki, his hand resting on her head.

"W...well, um...I...I don't want to. I'd rather have class with Karasuma-sensei." Kanzaki said.

Takina was moving before anyone else could react. Darting forward, Takina shoved Kanzaki out of the way, taking the hit across the face that had been meant for Kanzaki.

"Takina!"

Takina cursed lowly in German, pressing a hand to her now bruised face while Kanzaki, Kayano, and a few of the others crowded around her to check on her. She didn't try to get up, her head still reeling from the blow. She would give Takaoka one thing...he really had quite the heavy handed hit.

"You guys just don't seem to get it at all. "Yes" is the only thing I should hear out of you. If you have a problem with that, then how about we let our fists do the talking? That's your father's forte!" Takaoka told them.

Takina just wanted to tell him to go suck it.

"Stop, Takaoka!" Karasuma came charging in then, crouching next to Takina to check on her. "Are you alright? Is there any pain in your neck?"

"I'm fine." Takina said, pushing herself up, a hand pressed to her throbbing cheek. "He has a heavy handed hit, but nowhere near that of my father or my karate instructor back home."

Karasuma was glad to hear that she was fine and hadn't lost an inch of her spirit, but he knew the glare she shot Takaoka's way was just going to land her in more trouble.

"You shouldn't have jumped in like that, Takina." Kanzaki cried, gripping Takina's sleeve.

"It's fine, Kanzaki. If I can take the hit better, then it should be me." Takina told her.

Sure that Takina was fine, Karasuma turned to check on Maehara, the boy assuring him that he was fine too.

"I'm making sure to hold back, you know, Karasuma. They're my precious family, so that's a given." Takaoka said.

"No." Takaoka turned as Korosensei spoke, clearly angry. "They are not your family. They are my students."

"Heh. Is that a complaint I hear, monster? I'm fairly certain I was the one put in charge of PE. Additionally, the **punishment** just now was perfectly within the bounds of a training session. This is all to raise them, in a short span of time, into assassins who will kill you. It's only a given that things will be tough. Or, what? You would attack a man who hasn't done a thing to you, just because his teaching methods are a little different?"

Korosensei wasn't able to argue with Takaoka and both him and Karasuma were forced to let Takaoka get back to training the students. He instantly put the students to work on doing squats. Which was no easy task. Not even half way through, Kurahashi, scared and tired, called out for Karasuma. A big no-no with Takaoka, who was on her in a second flat.

"Oi, Karasuma, isn't part of our family. Children who don't rely solely on their father must be punished." Takaoka said, pulling a fist back to hit Kurahashi. To his surprise, Takina, once more, stepped in the way, slapping his fist aside. "Oh, are you going to disobey your father, too?"

"You know, my real father tried the same methods as you and all it got him was my boot in his nuts. Keep your hands to yourself." Takina told Takaoka sternly, keeping herself between him and Kurahashi.

Takaoka's smile became just a little bit more strained, a tick mark appearing at one temple as his anger rose. His sharp gaze met Takina's, her intense glare showing that she wasn't going to back down, or stand by and watch him continue to hit her classmates.

"So you want to defy your father. Disobedient children get punished." Takaoka said, drawing his fist back again.

Takina steeled herself, spreading her arms to guard Kurahashi behind her. She had taken one of his hits before. It had hurt, but it had been no where as painful as some of the hits she had taken in the past. She would take this, defend her friend, and would deal with whatever pain she was left with. She braced herself for the incoming hit, but before Takaoka could even swing the punch, Karasuma grabbed his wrist, bringing him to a stop.

"Don't be any rougher with the students. If you want to get violent, I will be your opponent." Karasuma told Takaoka.

"Karasuma-sensei!" Kurahashi exclaimed in relief, slumping against Takina's back.

Takina released a silent sigh of relief, dropping her arms, though she stayed exactly where she was. Just in case. Takaoka snatched his arm free of Karasuma then, the sly grin on his face telling Takina that he was up to something.

"I told you already, didn't I? This isn't violence. It's training. I don't intend to fight with you using violence. If we're going to have a showdown, it will be as teachers to the very end." Takaoka told Karasuma, pulling one of the anti-Korosensei blades from the inside of his jacket. "You guys haven't accepted me yet either, right? Your father's reluctant to continue like this, too. Especially with you."

Takaoka turned his eyes to Takina, Kurahashi's grip on the back of Takina's jacket, tightening. Takina didn't falter for a moment, just met his gaze. Grinning widely, Takaoka turned back to Karasuma.

"So how about this! We'll decide things with this!" he said, waving the anti-Korosensei blade.

"A knife?" Okuda asked.

"Karasuma, choose one student you would recommend out of those you've raised. They'll fight against me, and if they're able to hit me even once with the knife, I'll acknowledge that your teaching methods were better than mine. Then I'll leave their training entirely to you and leave! A man doesn't go back on his word!" Takaoka said, some of the boys already preparing to be sent into the fight, but Takaoka had a twist waiting for them. "But, of course, if I win, I won't allow any further meddling, either."

Takina raised an eyebrow as the man turned to his bag, throwing aside the anti-Korosensei knife before reaching into his bag. She had a horrible feeling in her gut when he pulled another knife out of his bag, though this one was made of real steel.

"This isn't the knife we'll be using. I, a human, am the one you're going to kill. The knife used has to be the real deal." Takaoka told them.

"Stop this! They aren't trained or prepared to kill a man! Even if they hold a real knife, their bodies would just freeze up and they wouldn't be able to stab at all!" Karasuma protested.

Takina didn't know about that.

While they hadn't been trained to kill humans, she was pretty sure that the skills they had learned could easily be converted from killing Korosensei to killing a human. Besides, when push came to shove, any human was capable of doing unspeakable things to another. Though, she didn't say this out loud.

"Don't worry. Even if they stop just short of cutting me, it'll still count. I'll be unarmed, too, so you couldn't ask for a better handicap." Takaoka told him.

Now Takina saw what he was up to. An unarmed professional against a inexperience newbie wielding a real knife for the first time. By pitting it this way, it would inspire fear into the others when Takaoka effortless took down someone armed with just his bare hands. It would force the students to realize the differences between them and Takaoka and leave them unable to fight back again. Takina had to admit it was an effective tactic.

But not in Class E.

"Come, Karasuma! Choose one! If you don't like it, then obey me unconditionally! Will you abandon the students, or present one as a sacrifice! You'll be an awful teacher either way!" Takaoka declared.

While Karasuma was still uncertain about his position in this whole teacher thing, he knew that there was no way a middle schooler who had only three months worth of training, could stand up to a man who had once been part of the elite corps. Picking up the knife after Takaoka tossed it towards him, he turned and headed towards the students. While several of his students stood out, Takina who had stood up to Takaoka, being one of them, he knew there was only one student among the class who had the possibility of succeeding.

Thus, Karasuma came to a stop in front of Nagisa.

"Nagisa, will you do it?" Karasuma asked, holding the knife out to the boy. Shocked and concerned looks turned towards Nagisa and Karasuma. "If I must choose, then it would probably be you, but before you answer, I want you to listen to my thoughts on the matter. As part of the same group entrusted with the mission of saving the Earth, I think of you all as fellow professionals. As professionals, I believe the barest minimum you should receive as compensation is the guarantee of a normal middle school life. That's why there is no need for you to force yourself to take this knife. I will endeavor to request that Takaoka maintain that "compensation"."

"If you bow down to me dogeza-style, I'll consider it, Karasuma." Takaoka added.

To Karasuma's surprise, Nagisa took the knife.

"I'll do it." Nagisa said, stretching out his shoulders.

He trusted Karasuma's judgment in the whole thing and knew that he had to get Takaoka back for what he had done to Maehara and for the bruise he had left on Takina when she had stepped in to take a blow for Kanzaki. He would prove Karasuma's judgment right.

"Your eyes must be going bad, Karasuma. Choosing that shortie, of all people." Takaoka mocked.

Takina was sure that Takaoka was about to find out that appearance weren't always correct.

"Nagisa, Takaoka is very familiar with how to fight unarmed against a knife. You need to swing with all you strength, or you won't even graze him." Karasuma advised.

"Right." Nagisa replied.

"Listen, you'll win if you hit him with the knife or stop just short of doing so. If Takaoka overpowers you bare-handed, it will be his win. Those are the rules he has set in place. However, in this match, the greatest difference between you two is not who has the knife. Do you understand?" Karasuma asked.

Nagisa didn't look like he understood, but Takina was sure that wouldn't stop him. Nagisa was small, his physical skills normally below that of all the other guys in the class, but what Nagisa lacked in strength and size, he made up for in other ways.

"Oi, do you think Nagisa's gonna pull it off?" Sugaya asked.

"Impossible. When he trained with Karasuma-sensei, that much is obvious." Kimura replied. "Not to mention, there's no way he can use a real knife."

"Don't be so sure." Takina told them. "Contrary to belief, the one thing Nagisa has going for him, is his appearance. No one is going to expect anything out of a sweet, innocent looking boy like him until it's too late. You'll see."

Her classmates weren't so sure about that, but all they could do at this point, was stand back and watch.

They all stood back, watching as Nagisa calmed himself down and then, with a smile on his face, calmly approached Takaoka. Takina watched in amusement as Takaoka went blank in the face of Nagisa walking towards him normally, as if he didn't have a care in the world. He stood there, staring at Nagisa as the boy came closer, only stopping when he was barely a foot in front of him.

And then Nagisa moved.

Takaoka only realized Nagisa had moved when the blade came within a few inches of his throat. He ducked backwards, his center of gravity falling backwards, allowing Nagisa to seize him by the shirt and tug him completely off balance. From there, like a snake coiling around it's prey, Nagisa slipped around Takaoka, covering the man's eyes while pressing the knife to his throat.

In a mere instant, Nagisa had taken an opponent most people would have thought beyond him. And that was what Takina had meant when she had said that what Nagisa had going for him, was his appearance. No one would expect someone like Nagisa, to be a naturally gifted assassin.

Of course, Nagisa had to ruin the air of shock.

"Was I not supposed to use the back of the blade, Karasuma-sensei?" Nagisa asked, clueless.

"That's enough." Korosensei said, stepping in and taking the knife from Nagisa. "The match has been decided, Karasuma-sensei. Seriously, making a student carry a real knife, you must be out of your mind. And what would you have done if he'd gotten injured?"

With that, the class exploded, everyone rushing Nagisa to congratulate him. Takina remained where she was, hands on hips as she watched her class. Once the others had stepped back a bit, she approached, giving Nagisa's shoulder a pat

Now the others saw in Nagisa, what she already knew. Nagisa was the type that could keep his blood lust, keep his intentions, well hidden until the last possible moment. Because of that, his opponent didn't see what was coming until it was too late. It was why when paired with a sly fighter good at misdirection, like Takina, Nagisa could really shine, and why Takina and Nagisa had started to train together.

Karasuma now understood how the two had almost pulled one over on him in training the other day. Takina had seen in Nagisa what he was now seeing and, together, the two were fostering it into a good combination. If they were to continue to foster such a combination, then, one day, the two could be the world's greatest pair of assassins. Though that left Karasuma wondering if that was a good thing.

"Karasuma-sensei, you certainly seem wholly lost this time. How unlike you." Korosensei taunted.

"That bad is it." Karasuma replied.

"Not at all. But you know, Karasuma-sensei," Korosensei pointed towards the students.

Takaoka, angered at his loss, came up behind Nagisa, fury rolling off him in waves. Takina turned to look up at him as he glared down at them.

"You little brats...turning against me, who is practically your father...you're **that** pleased over that fluke of a win, are you? One more match! This time, I definitely won't let my guard down! I'll smash both your spirits and bodies to pieces!" Takaoka declared.

Karasuma started forward, to put a stop to the whole thing before any of the students could get hurt, but Korosensei stopped him.

"You're really dense aren't you?" Takaoka stopped, his eyes falling to Takina as she spoke. "You really don't get it, do you?"

"If we fought again, I'm sure I'd be the one to lose. But, Takaoka-sensei, it should be clear that Korosensei is our "classroom teacher", and Karasuma-sensei is our "training instructor"." Nagisa said.

"No matter what, that will absolutely not change." Takina agreed, crossing her arms.

"I feel that Karasuma-sensei, who devotes himself to being professional, is much kinder than Takaoka-sensei, who forcefully passes himself off as a father. We're grateful that you gave your all trying to make us stronger, but I'm sorry. Please leave." Nagisa said, giving Takaoka a bow.

"In other words, we want Karasuma-sensei back, so take a hike." Takina added, not being as polite about it as Nagisa.

"You think I'll just listen to this crap...for lowly brats to say such things to an adult..." Takaoka growled, gritting his teeth as his anger took over.

Takina wasn't worried though. She had seen Karasuma almost before Takaoka could raise a fist. Before Takaoka could lay a finger on any of them, Karasuma planted an elbow in his chin, planting the man on the ground.

"I apologize for the trouble my colleague has caused. Don't worry about the rest. I will negotiate with the higher ups so I'll be able to serve as your sole training instructor. If it becomes necessary, I'll even threaten them with a gun to get their agreement." Karasuma told them.

"Like hell I'll let you. I'll talk to them first, and-"

"Negotiations won't be necessary." Everyone looked up when the voice of the board chairman cut off Takaoka. They found Chairman Asano standing at the top of the stairs leading down to the training field. "I came to see the state of affairs, as the proprietor. I was interested in the new teacher's abilities, you see."

For a moment, Karasuma, just like Takina and some of the other students, feared that Chairman Asano would want Takaoka to stay seeing how Takaoka exhausted E Class and that was exactly what Chairman Asano wanted. But then the man knelt beside Takaoka, getting right in his face.

"But, you know, Takaoka-sensei, you class was horribly dull. Fear is a necessary element for instruction. A top-notch educator would know how to use that fear skillfully and efficiently. However, the sort of teacher who can only cause fear through violence, is even less than third-rate. Once you lose to brute force weaker than your own, your lessons are stripped of all persuasive power." Chairman Asano said, as he started writing out something on a piece of paper he pulled from his pocket. He then shoved that piece of paper in Takaoka's mouth. "This is your notice of dismissal. You will be unable to teach here from this point on.

"Well, dang." Takina said lowly, pleasantly surprised.

"You at the Ministry of Defense do no have the power to appoint teachers to this school. Do not forget that everything here is under my jurisdiction." Chairman Asano said as he turned to leave.

Takaoka, frustrated and humiliated, beat him to the door, running out of there as fast as he could. With the realization that Takaoka had just gotten the boot and Karasuma would return to being their teacher, the students let out a collective cheer.

"Man, the board chairman does some good stuff every once in a while." Sugino said.

"Y-yeah. That's even scarier, though." Nagisa replied.

"Not really. The man was just showing that, when it all comes down to it, he's the one in charge here." Takina remarked.

Karasuma silently agreed with the girl. He was well aware that this was just Chairman Asano's way of reminding them that, no matter how much they might try to change things, they were all still in the palm of his hands and he would be the one making the final choice.

"As usual, there isn't any uncertainty in that man's teaching methods." Korosensei remarked to Karasuma.

For a moment, Karasuma just looked at Korosensei before he asked a question that was weighing on his mind.

"If Nagisa told you "I want to be an assassin in the future.", would you still train him without any sort of hesitation?" Karasuma asked, catching Korosensei a little off guard. "He hasn't noticed it himself, but he has the talent for it. Whether he will be useful in your assassination is anyone's guess, but against normal humans, he could undoubtedly become a capable hitman."

"That's difficult to answer. But, a good teacher has his moments of indecision. While you may be utterly lost in your own thoughts over whether you're truly giving them the best answer, in front of the students, you must be resolute and confident in your teaching so that they never realize your uncertainty. That's all the more reason why the teaching profession is so cool." Korosensei told him.

Karasuma figured Korosensei had a point there, but he wasn't able to dwell on it long before the students interrupted them.

"By the way, Karasuma-sensei, thanks to the students' hard work, you were able to return as the PE teacher, sooo...shouldn't we get some sorta special reward?" Nakamura asked.

"Yup, yup~! That was really the only thing Takaoka-sensei was good at." Kurahashi added.

Karasuma couldn't help but be a little amused. He supposed they deserved a little treat.

"I don't know a thing about sweets. I've got my wallet our, so tell me what you want to eat when we get to town." he told the students, a cheer rising from the group.

While Korosensei tried to talk the students into letting him in on the reward, too, Karasuma turned to Takina as she walked past him.

"Itamatsu," Takina stopped, turning to look back at him. "You know jumping in like you did was dangerous, right? He could have seriously hurt you."

To his surprise, he actually got a laugh out of Takina, the girl reaching up to rub at the bruise Takaoka had left on her left cheek.

"Karasuma-sensei, I have a heavy handed father not afraid to dish out a little physical punishment, and because he was that way, so were all the other instructors he hired for me. Compared to all that, compared to my father...Takaoka hits like nine year old girl." Takina told him, waving it off. "I'm not afraid of a little physical ramification."

With that, Takina turned, waving a hand over her shoulder as she walked away. Karasuma watched her walk away. It was not the first time that he had stopped to wonder about Takina's home life. It had to be difficult. After all, the girl had made herself legally independent and had moved to a completely different country in an attempt to distanced herself from her father. That being said, she acted like it was nothing, moving forward with her life as if it was just another fact she had accepted.

Karasuma didn't know what to think of it.

He knew it wasn't right, that it shouldn't be something Takina just readily accepted, but that being said, he couldn't really force his opinion on her when she seemed perfectly fine with things as they were.

If only he knew the truth of what lurked under Takina's facade.

END

Kyandi: I hate the summer too.

Takina: You live in Texas where it's humid and like living in Satan's Oven.

Kyandi: Exactly. We don't really have set seasons. The weather is just all over the place.

Takina: Like this year?

Kyandi: Yes! This year, we didn't really have a Fall. We went from in the nineties for summer, to below forty for winter. And now, when it should be getting colder for winter, we have fall weather.

Takina: You live in a weird place.

Kyandi: That I do. Anyway, I have cantata practice, so let's wrap this up.

Takina: Sounds good.

Kyandi: Everyone enjoy and review.

Takina: We'll be back as soon as possible.

Kyandi: Bye-bye!


	10. Land of the Fish

Kyandi: Howdy all Kyandiacs!

Takina: We're back with a new chapter.

Kyandi: I was trying to read ahead a little since there are things in the manga that weren't in the anime.

Takina: Like the events of this chapter.

Kyandi: Right. Also, in the chapter, you get a little bit more information on Takina's past.

Takina: Just a little. Don't want to spill too much at one time.

Kyandi: Exactly. So, let's get on with it. I still have two other stories to update.

Takina: Right, then.

Kyandi: Everyone, please enjoy and review. I would love some feedback!

Takina: Kyandi-sama does not own Assassination Classroom.

Chapter 10 Land of the Fish

"So hooooot..."

Following the charade with Takaoka, summer hit E Class hard, the heat overtaking them all and leaving them feeling like zombies.

"Nowadays a classroom with no AC is hell." Mimura complained.

"How undisciplined. It's a given that summer will be hot!" Korosensei told them, though he was draped over his desk like the students. "We live in a humid subtropical climate, so we just have to tolerate it. By the way, after school, sensei will be making a run to the arctic."

"But the pool opens today, right? I'm really looking forward to PE." Kurahashi said.

"Nah...that pool would be hell for us in Class E." Kimura remarked. "The pool's only in the main building anyway, so we'd have to make a one kilometer round trip along the mountain road under the blazing sun. People call it the "Class E Pool Death March". In particular, when we climb back up the mountain after wearing ourselves out at the pool. Without any strength, all we can do is become food for the crows."

"I would rather sit here in this sauna of a classroom." Takina remarked.

"Ugh...c'mon, carry us to the main building, Korosensei." Meahara complained.

"Geez, guess there's no helping it...is what I'd like to say, but you can't rely on sensei's speed! There are plenty of things that can't be done, even with mach twenty speed!" Korosensei told them. "Still, I understand how you feel. Oh, well. All of you change into your swimsuits and there's a small stream nearby, along the other side of the mountain, right? Let's go there and cool off."

The students did as asked, everyone getting changed before following Korosensei. Though, Takina, who was use to much cooler temperatures, complained, at first, about getting up and moving at all. The girls finally got her up and moving, but not without bribing Takina with ice cream on the way home that afternoon.

"So the other side of the mountain had a stream, huh?" Hayami asked.

"Sorta. Even if you call it a stream, it's about ankle-deep at best." Chiba replied.

"Well...we'll be able to play around and splash water on each other, so it's a bit better than nothing." Sugino said.

"I'd still rather sit in the classroom if that's the best we got." Takina said, heaving a sigh.

Part of Takina couldn't help but think that if she had known it was going to be this hot in the summer, than she wouldn't have come to Japan.

"Nagisa," Karma drew Takina's attention as he turned to talk to Nagisa. "Apparently you were pretty amazing recently. I wish I could've seen that assassination you did!"

"Try not skipping class every other day, and you might have gotten to see it." Takina told him, Karma sticking his tongue out at her.

"Aww, but I didn't like that fat-ass at all." Karma replied.

"Neither did I, but I still showed up." Takina told him.

"That's because you're too stiff." Karma told her.

"Oh, really?" Karma staggered forward as Takina suddenly hopped on his back, wrapping her arms and legs around him, forcing him to carry her. "Since you want to say so, you get to carry this "stiff" to the stream."

Karma grinned as he staggered forward with her on his back. The others grinned and laughed as Karma pretended to try to get her off his back, Takina only clinging on all the harder. Nagisa was glad to see that Takina was getting along with one other person. Even if that person was Karma.

"Now then, everyone!" Korosensei called. "I said it earlier, right? That there are things you can't do, even with mach twenty speed. One such thing is taking all of you to the pool. Unfortunately, it would take an entire day."

"A day...you're exaggerating. It's a twenty minute walk to the main building's pool." Isogai said.

"Hmm? Who said anything about going to the main building?" Korosensei said, before revealing where he was taking them.

Korosensei had dammed up the sorry excuse for a stream, creating a secret pool made only for the use of E Class. Karma carried Takina to the pool side where she hopped off to peer down at the pool while the rest of their class jumped in with excitement.

"Not getting in?" Karma asked.

"I will when I'm good and ready." Takina replied.

"Oh, are you scared of the water?" Karma teased.

"Just wondering if it's cold or lukewarm. Here, why don't you find out for me." Karma should have seen the shove coming before she pushed him into the water, but Takina had been so straight faced, he hadn't expected it until he was plunging head first into the water. When he came back to the surface, she was standing at the side, hands on hips. "Well?"

"Pleasantly cool." he told her.

"Great. Move over."

Karma didn't have time to move before, once again, she jumped on him, the two sinking under the water. Karma came back to the surface and, once again, Takina was on his back. Slumping against his shoulders, Takina didn't even try to move.

"You do the swimming for me." she told him.

"Well aren't you lazy." Karma remarked.

"Only when it's hot."

For the most part, Takina remained exactly like that, slumped against Karma's back, letting the boy swim her around the pool. She made the mistake, though, of becoming too relaxed and, when she had just fully relaxed, Karma surged upward, throwing her off his back. Everyone stopped when Takina hit the water and they all watched as she lowly rose to the surface of the water, her eyes fixing in on Karma who grinned at her.

"Akabane."

"Yes?"

"You're dead."

Karma went down laughing as Takina jumped at him, the two wrestling through the water, only for Korosensei to yell at them for horse play. As it turned out, Korosensei was a real stickler for pool side rules. To the class's amusement, though, he let out a shriek when Kurahashi splashed him with water, leading to Karma trying to knock him from his lifeguard chair. Everyone stared at Korosensei.

"I mean, I just don't really feel like swimming. And it's not like my tentacles get all bloated underwater and I can't move, or anything." Korosensei said, whistling.

Takina had a feeling that this little weakness of Korosensei's just might turn out to be the most useful one of all.

"But you've got a kick board with you. You must really want to swim." Mimura remarked.

"This isn't a kick board. It's fugashi." Korosensei replied.

In other words...it was his afternoon snack.

"You are, by far, the weirdest person I've ever met." Takina remarked from where she was, once more, draped across Karma's back.

"Says the girl currently draped across Karma's back." Okajima retorted.

"What? It's hot, I'm tired, and I'm a person with very few qualms about invasion of personal space...well, **me** invading **others'** personal space, that is." Takina replied. "You're forgetting that I'm from a country with a naturally cooler climate. I'm not use to all of this heat."

Okajima opened his mouth to say something else, but Takina just flapped a hand at him in a dismissive gesture. It was when Takina did this that they could see the "rich girl" side of her. All attention was pulled from her, however, when Kayano, who wasn't a good swimmer, tipped over out of her float and started thrashing in an attempt to stay above water.

"Are you telling me you're so short that you can't even stand!" Maehara demanded as he and others rushed towards Kayano.

It was Kataoka, jumping into the water, that helped Kayano. Swimming in under Kayano, she easily lift the girl's head free of the water.

"There, you're alright now, Kayano. Let's go over where it's shallow now, okay?" Kataoka told her.

"I'm saved. Thanks, Kataoka!" Kayano told her.

"Fufu. If we're in the water, this just might be my turn to shine." Kataoka remarked.

Takina could already somewhat see where Kataoka was going with this. They all enjoyed the water for a while longer, Karma actually being nice enough to let Takina rest on his back whenever she wanted to.

He only tossed her into the water another two times.

An improvement for someone like Akabane Karma.

Later that day, Takina, Kataoka, and some of the others met up to discuss an assassination plan that Kataoka had come up with.

"First off, the question is whether or not Korosensei really can't swim." Okano remarked. "We've already seen that he bloats when there's a lot of humidity. And before, the only places that swelled were the one's Kurahashi hit with water."

"But if we can make his whole body temporarily swell up with water, even if it's not enough to kill him, there's a good chance that it'll be extremely hard for him to react with anywhere near his normal speed." Takina added.

"Exactly. So, here's what I've been thinking, guys. At one point during this summer, we'll pull Korosensei underwater. **That** alone won't kill him, so we'll likely also slow his defensive reactions with knives and guns. Then, when he's bloated and can't move well, students who have been lying in wait underwater will strike! I'll be underwater, so just leave that part to me." Kataoka said, reaching back to remove the barrette from her hair. Holding it out, she showed them the anti-sensei knife built into it. "With the anti-sensei knife built into my barrette, I'll be ready to go anytime."

"Ooh~! So basically, it's time for Kataoka Megu, the swimming team's second year representative for crawl stoke last year, to have a turn." Maehara said.

"The most important part now is getting Korosensei near the water area without arousing suspicion. We've got the entire summer. So let's keep an eye out for our chance." Kataoka encouraged.

Takina, watching Kataoka with the rest of the class, could see why the girl was well liked enough to get love confessions from other girls.

Not that that was Takina's thing.

Over the next few days, Kataoka made good use of the pool Korosensei made for them. One day, Takina stood at the pool side with Kayano and Nagisa, watching as she raced from one end of the pool to the other, timing her swimming speed with the help of Ritsu.

"Wow, how cool." Kayano remarked.

"She sure has a huge sense of responsibility." Nagisa agreed.

"She certainly is cool." Takina turned as Kayano gasped out Korosensei's name when he suddenly appeared beside them. "I don't know what she's been entrusted with though."

They couldn't let him find out that they were planning to try to kill him in the water. Takina shared a look with Nagisa, the boy instantly jumping in to change the subject.

"Hey, Korosensei...you sent a fan letter to Tade Haruko, that actress with a huge chest, didn't you." Nagisa remarked.

"Nyuaa! How do you know about that?!" Korosensei yelled.

"I caught sight of it on your desk, and told him about it." Takina informed him, her tone bored and idle.

"You sure spend a lot of time thinking and rewriting it from what she said, huh." Nagisa added.

"Yeek! D-don't tell me you read all those?!" Korosensei demanded, looking from Nagisa to Takina.

Takina's eyes snapped to Korosensei, the now almost aquamarine color betraying her teasing mind set.

"Come now, Korosensei, writing things like "When I look at you, it really perks up my tentacles"...Normally that would be sexual harassment, right, Nagisa?" Takina remarked.

"Right. I wonder what would happen if someone found out that a teacher sent it." Nagisa agreed.

"Nagisa, Takina, you can stop already. He's utterly mortified." Kayano told the two as Korosensei hid his face in his tentacles, completely embarrassed by what his students had managed to find out.

Takina gave a shrug of her shoulders, though the look in her eyes clearly said that she wanted to continue teasing him. Turning her back on him, though, she walked up to the pool, reaching down to yank off her shoes and stockings before dropping to sit down next to Kataoka's cellphone, from which Ritsu was watching, sticking her feet in the water. Kataoka shot her a smile, but didn't let her presence distract her from what she was doing.

A sudden ding had Takina looking down at the phone to see that Ritsu was currently holding an envelope.

"Kataoka, you have an email from someone named Tagawa Kokona." Ritsu called to Kataoka.

"Ah...she's a friend. Sorry, but could you read it to me, Ritsu?" Kataoka requested.

"Sure." Ritsu opened the email and cleared her throat. "'Megumegu, what's up? Actually, I'd like you to help me with some school stuff again. Let's meet up at the family restaurant in front of Torima Station.' That's everything. It would seem that she has a somewhat low IQ."

"Ritsu, even though we may think it, it's not polite to say it out loud." Takina told the AI.

"Oh! My apologies!" Ritsu said, but Kataoka just climbed out of the water.

"Alright. Reply back with: I'll be right over."Kataoka told Ritsu.

Takina handed Kataoka her towel and things, the girl giving her a smile.

"Later, you three. Something's come up, so I'll be going out for a bit." Kataoka told Takina, Nagisa, and Kayano.

"I wonder what that was so suddenly." Nagisa remarked.

"That a pretty gloomy expression for someone going to meet up with a friend. Yeah." Kayano agreed.

"I have a feeling that this is another one of those kind of like what we experienced a while back with Maehara and that ex of his." Takina remarked, pulling her legs out of the water, shaking the water free before she pulled her stockings and shoes back on.

"How about we go take a peek at the situation. I'm especially worried **because** she is such a level-headed person." Korosensei told them as Takina got to her feet. "Those who everyone relies on, tend to keep their own hardships to themselves."

Takina could see that being the case. It was part of the reason why she normally never got involved in other people's issues. Well...before she came to Japan, she did. That being said, she found herself being dragged along after Nagisa and Kayano, spying on Kataoka as she met up with her so-called "friend".

The girl Kataoka met up with, was, as Ritsu put it, decidedly of a low IQ.

"Finals are coming up, y'know! Megumegu's in Class E, but you're good in all my bad subjects." the girl, Kokona, told Kataoka.

"I guess. Say, Kokona. Right now, there's something I want to do. We're not in the same class, anymore, so you calling me out all the time is, well..." Kataoka trailed off, hoping the other girl would get what she was trying to say.

"What do you mean? I'm relying on you, and yet you're telling me not to call you anymore?" Kokona asked, whining in a way that made a muscle twitch under Takina's left eye.

"No, that's not what I'm saying, but-"

" **How cruel**." Kokona said, getting up in Kataoka's face, knocking a drink over on Kataoka's hand. "And you were the one who nearly killed me, too. I almost died because of you, and now, I'm so scared that I can't even get in the water. You'll support me, won't you? Forever."

Takina and her friends watched as, with tears streaming from her wide eyes, Kokona picked up Kataoka's drenched hand and licked the liquid from it while holding the hand to her cheek. It was so weird and creepy that even Takina made a face at it. It was then that Kokona realized the time.

"Ah! Look what time it is. I promised to play with my friend, and I'm gonna be late. Later, Megumegu! From here on, you'll always be my exclusive Ikemegu!" Kokona called, hurrying out of the building.

When she was gone, Kataoka heaved a sigh and slumped back in her seat for a moment. Then she glanced out of the side of her eyes.

"So, what business does that suspicious trio over there have with me?" she called making Korosensei, Kayano, and Nagisa gulp.

"Actually, it's a quartet." Kataoka looked up in surprise, Nagisa and Kayano snapping around to look at the spot Takina had previous occupied before turning back to where the girl now stood beside the table Kataoka was sitting at. Reaching into her pocket, Takina pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to Kataoka. "Care to join us for a walk?"

Kataoka released another sigh and thanked Takina as she took the handkerchief in order to dry her hand. Gathering her stuff after that, Kataoka joined Takina and the other as they left. It was while they were walking that Kataoka filled the others in on what the deal was with Kokona.

"Last summer, that girl, who was in my class, asked me to teach her how to swim. Apparently, the boy she liked and his friends were going to the beach and she didn't want to look bad in front of him. After one session of training, she'd improved enough to more or less swim the length of a pool. Still, swimming in the ocean is much more dangerous than in a pool, so I planned to teach her a bunch of other times after that, as well." Kataoka explained.

"Let me guess...she thought she was fine like that and didn't come to anymore practice?" Takina asked.

"Yes. She wouldn't come to practice anymore since the first one and ended up going to the beach like that. She must have thought that it was enough if she could swim a bit. From the start, she was the sort who hated practicing things repeatedly, after all. And, sure enough, she was swept away by the ocean current, practically drowned, and was dragged back to shore by a rescuer. It's been like this ever since. She'd say, "I have a trauma from being utterly humiliated and nearly dying", and, "Give me compensation for that useless swimming instruction.". Each time a test rolls around, I give her constant studying lessons...but at the same time, I ended up growing worse in my weak subjects and landed in Class E." Kataoka told them.

"No way...isn't she taking advantage of you just a bit too much?" Kayano demanded.

"It's alright. I'm used to this sort of thing." Kataoka assured her.

"But it's not alright."

Kataoka turned to Takina when the girl spoke, her expression firm and the almost neon green of her eyes showing just how serious she felt.

"Takina is right. That's no good at all, Kataoka. If you grow accustomed to others clinging to you, someday, you'll be dragged down with them. For example, like this." Korosensei said, holding up some cards he had drawn on, the title at the top reading, "The Melancholy Housewife".

"Yeah, we're not doing that." Takina told Korosensei, pushing the cards down, much to Korosensei's disappointment. Turning, Takina turned to look at Kataoka, crossing her arms over her chest in an almost defensive gesture. "I think I've made it no secret that growing up, my father was rather abusive in his attempts to prepare me for the real world, right?"

"Yes." Kataoka answered, unsure where Takina was going with this.

"The truth is...I had a chance to, with the support of the trust fund left to me by my mother, become independent of him two years ago, but...I didn't take it." The way Takina's mouth twisted at one corner, showed how much she disliked admitting this. "We'd had a huge fight, each of us saying, and doing things that we both regretted later. Or, at least...I regretted. I was completely prepared to take that step to get out of his house, but, like he always did after a dispute like that, he came to me, apologizing, showering me with gifts. I'm pretty sure he always knew that I was prepared to leave should he push me too far, and, like always...I forgave him and stayed. Even when he has scarred me over the years."

Takina slid a finger under on of her gloves, pulling it back to display the disfiguring scars that raced across the back of her hand. Kataoka flinched, she and the others staring at Takina in disbelief. Takina resettled her glove.

"Though she's not scarring you physically, as my father has done to me, this girl is doing so to you mentally, and letting her isn't helping her anymore than it's helping you. Tell me, does any of this sound like a healthy relationship to you? Codependency can be as big of a monster as anything else. You end up becoming dependent on others dependence on you, and, eventually, you're stuck in rut you can't climb out of on your own." Takina added.

"Takina..."

"You don't have to give me that look, Megu." Takina said when Kataoka trailed off. "I'm free of my codependency. I was given the much needed shove that I needed, and now...now it's my turn to give **you** that much needed shove." Takina turned to look at Korosensei then. "Do you want to say something now, without the use of those cards?"

Korosensei was upset that he wasn't able to use his cards, but the teacher in him took over and he quickly let it go. Especially since Takina had done a good just as good of a job making a point as he cards would of done.

"Kataoka, the way you look after her and your sense of responsibility are truly incredible. Even so, at times, you need to nurture the other person's spirit of self-reliance. "No matter how much I cling to this person, we won't sink.". Takina has a point. Someone who thinks like that will stop trying to swim under their own power. It doesn't do her any good, either." Korosensei told her, agreeing with Takina.

"What should I do, Korosensei, Takina?" Kataoka asked.

"That much is obvious. She needs to be able to swim under her own power. Please don't endure such a burden alone, and rely on your sensei. This octopus will teach her mach swimming, which makes even fish blanch with fright." Korosensei told her.

"Sometimes, I don't know whether to take your comments at face value or not." Takina told Korosensei.

Takina had a bad feeling that she wasn't going to like this plan of his, whatever it may be, and the feeling only grew when Korosensei turned to her, his usual grin growing wider as a snicker left him.

Takina was sure she was about to hate her life.

-0-0-0-0-

It was official.

Takina hated her life.

As part of Korosensei's plan, he had basically abducted the Kokona girl, bed and all, from her house, landing her softly and quietly at the edge of the pool he had made for E Class. Once done, he proceeded to dress himself, Kayano, Nagisa, and Takina up in mermaid costumes. Takina soon found herself dressed in fake fins and scales, a strapless bikini top that glittered with sequins in the moonlight, and fake fins attached to a headband.

Floating across the water, the seashell hairpiece in her hair lightly clacking together, Takina heaved a silent sigh. She felt ridiculous, but she had said she would help Kataoka and that was what she was going to do. For the time being, her part was simply to look like a pretty water creature of myths, enjoying her time in fairy tale-like fountain.

When Kokona awoke, Takina, only the top half of her face seen above water, was sneaking up on Nagisa who was squirting Kayano with water. As Kokona watched, Takina shifted back to float on her back and, with a great heave of her finned feet, sent a wave of water crashing over Nagisa's head, Kayano breaking out in laughter. By the time Nagisa came back to the surface, Takina was idly swimming away.

With Kokona awake, Kataoka, dressed similarly to Takina and the others, started her part. She approached Kokona's bed.

"It seems you're awake. Umm, th-this is the Land of Fish! Come, let's all swim together!" Kataoka said, holding her hand out to Kokona, and so embarrassed, she couldn't look the other girl in the face.

Not that Takina blamed her.

"You look an awful like Megumegu, though?" Kokona remarked.

"You're mistaken. I don't know anyone with that name, and I'm Poisson, so..."

"That's like something you'd name a pub! What the heck?!" Kokona exclaimed when Kataoka trailed off.

"My name's Carper." Nagisa added.

"Mine's Fishina!" Kayano chimed in.

"I'm Aquanna." Takina called as she floated by.

"Fishina's got an inner tube even though she's a fish?!" Kokona demanded.

"We fish people, much like you humans, are born with varying degrees of the ability to swim. Fishina is just a little weaker at it than most. It's not nice to point it out." Takina told Kokona, quickly covering for Kayano's use of an inner tube.

"O-oh...sorry." Kokona said, Kayano waving it off.

"And I am the Fish King." Korosensei broke in, changing the subject back. "Freely splashing about in rivers and oceans. I am the underwater world's strongest octopus."

"You're not a fish at all!" Kokona snapped.

Korosensei ignored her, instantly getting to work fixing the girl's hair up in the usual pigtails she wore it in.

"What an excellent chain of retorts. That makes quite a warm-up. Now for some careful stretching." Korosensei said, forcefully stretching the girl's limbs out for her before pulling out a bathing suit to quickly change her. "A quick change. And in you go!"

Takina moved out of the way as Korosensei shoved Kokona into the water without any further warning. As the girl began to thrash, fear overtaking her expression, Kataoka quickly jumped into the water after her.

"Calm down, Kokona! It's shallow over here." Kataoka told her, seizing her by the shoulders. "You want to be able to swim, right? We'll work on it a little bit at a time!"

"Not being able to swim at this point is fine by me! And I already decided that I'd use that to become a lovable character!" Kokona snapped. "If I say I can't swim, then that friend of mine you resemble will listen to anything I tell her!"

"Mmhm. Come along now, get walking! You've got to warm yourself up a bit!" Kataoka told her, shoving her from behind.

"Wh-what the heck, treating me like this when you're just a fish!" Kokona yelled.

Takina took that chance to swim by, and, much like Nagisa had done to Kayano earlier, squirted Kokona right in the face with water. As the girl squealed and flicked water off her face, Kataoka turned a stern look on Takina, but Takina was already swimming away and back towards Kayano.

Korosensei and Nagisa watched from the edge of the pool.

"By the way, Koro...Fish King, aren't you going to get in, too?" Nagisa asked, Korosensei flinching slightly.

"No. Well, sensei just came to the pool today to get a tan, so..."

"It's the dead of night, you fibber." Takina retorted from the water.

"And you can't teach her to swim if you don't go in the water, you know." Nagisa added.

"That's true. Well, then, I may as well." Korosensei said.

In the next second, there was a splash and Takina was sent tumbling end over end in the water. She quickly corrected herself, coming back to the surface.

"Now, we'll start with the basics of the streamline kick." Takina blinked at the absolutely ridiculous looking, fish-shaped suit Korosensei was using in order to keep himself completely dry. "This swimsuit was developed for just such an occasion. It is completely watertight and can even withstand swimming at mach speed. Behold the secret to many swimming techniques."

Takina lunged for the edge of the pool, grabbing hold of one of the diving boards in order to keep herself in place as Korosensei created a whirlpool that begun to drag Kokona in. The girl, despite Kataoka's best efforts to calm her, panicked.

"Don't panic, Kokona! The current's not as strong at the edges! We're going to practice how to swim in the ocean. It's fundamentally the same as swimming in a pool! As you feel the pull against your palms, increase your pace! In the ocean, it's easy to lose track of your location, so, from time to time, switch to breaststroke to figure it out, and then go back to crawl!" Kataoka called.

Meanwhile, Takina was pulling herself out of the water, sitting back while Nagisa and Kayano yelled at him about being cheap and how they wanted to see if he could swim with his actual body. Takina watched in amusement as Korosensei threw his swimsuit at Nagisa.

"I can, though. Even without that." Korosensei told them.

"He's...actually in the water?" Kayano asked.

"No, he's not, the cheater." Takina replied.

Before their eyes, Korosensei, as fast as he could move, was scooping out the water around him so that not a drop of it touched him. This, in turn, created a wave pool that was slowly dragging Kokona towards it.

"Keep calm! Change your course and swim over this way!" Kataoka called to Kokona. The girl did as told, finding that the water was calmer where Kataoka was. "This is called a rip tide. It's a current that reflects back from the shore and heads out into the open sea. This might just have been the reason you nearly drowned before. Rather than futilely head for shore, in a situation like this, you swim parallel to it and escape the current. Anyway, you absolutely mustn't panic!"

"It won't do any good to just have the information. Let's swim until morning, enough to pass out, and master an elegant swimming style like that of a fish." Korosensei announced.

Takina wanted to drown him in the pool.

Korosensei wasn't kidding when he said they would be out until morning. By the time dawn came, Kokona was passed out from being worked like a horse, and Takina was starting to chaffing and pinching in some really sensitive areas. A few days later, Takina joined Nagisa, Kataoka, Kayano, and Korosensei beside the pool once again as Kataoka told them all how she had watched Kokona's last swim test, the girl passing with flying colors.

"With this, you won't feel any sense of responsibility toward her, Kataoka." Korosensei remarked. "From now on, please remember that there are times to take someone's hand and lead them along, but also times when you must be stern and let them fend for themselves."

"I will. That holds true for you too, doesn't it, sensei?" Kataoka asked.

"I think it stands true for just about everyone." Takina remarked.

Kataoka turned a smile on Takina, even though the other girl was to busy stretching to see it. She knew Takina didn't have to share with her what she had about her life with her father, but Kataoka was grateful all the same.

"Oh, and one more thing." Korosensei said, dipping one tentacle into the water. When he removed it, the appendage was horribly swollen and water logged. "As you've already guessed, sensei can't swim. When immersed in water, I become almost incapable of moving. You could say that this is by far my greatest weakness. Be that as it may, I'm not particularly wary. I'm confident that I won't fall in, and, even if I do, so long as Kataoka is my only opponent, I can manage. Therefore, please trust in everyone's strength and hone their swimming skills. I created this pool for that very purpose."

Takina wasn't too surprised to find out that Korosensei had figured out their plans. After all, he'd have to be pretty clever to have survived as long as he had. Standing off to the side, watching him as he conversed with her classmates, Takina found herself truly at a loss for what to do with this creature that called itself her teacher. She had always been clever herself, even out smarting her tactician of a father on more than one occasion, but this was going to take more than her usual level of cleverness.

 _Challenge accepted, Korosensei._

With that thought, Takina turned and left, deciding to get home early for once. She had just reached the base of the mountain when Nagisa caught up with her.

"Takina!" Takina turned as the boy caught up with her. "You just left without saying anything."

"Oh, yeah...sorry. My step-mother complains that my manners are sorely lacking when I'm lost in thought. I guess she has a point." Takina remarked.

"About that, I was curious..." Takina glanced over at Nagisa as the boy trailed off, awkwardly scratching at one cheek. "You said someone gave you a much needed push to gain your independence and leave your father. That was your step-mother, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, it was." Takina confirmed, turning to face forward as they continued to walking. "Don't get me wrong, Nagisa, my father isn't an awful man. Just like my mother before her, he treats my step-mother like a queen and there are times when he treats me the same. I suspect he loves me...in his own way. It's just...not the same where I'm from. I'm not excusing how many times he's gone over board, or how the tutors he hired took the chance to be down right abusive, I assure you, but he is still my father. My step-mother knows I love him in my own way just as he does me, but she also knew that the two of us staying under the same roof was not healthy for either of us."

"So she gave you the push out the door, so to speak." Nagisa supplied.

"Packed my bags, gave me a ticket, and sent me on my way."

Nagisa couldn't decide whether that was sweet, or just cold.

"Your step-mother sounds...unique." Nagisa remarked.

"You have no idea. Elle is great and all, and she's taught me a lot and treated me like her own, but, to be painfully honest...the woman can be absolutely nuts." Nagisa chuckled at that, Takina smiling faintly. "But seriously. I'm good, Nagisa. You don't have to worry about me. Everything my father, and others, have put me through, have helped me to grow in one way or another. I'm determined to show him that he didn't raise a wimp."

Nagisa wasn't so sure that was being good. It was a good thing that she was determined to make her life work, but he was pretty sure that she could find a better reason to do it for than to prove a point to her father. But he didn't say any of this to Takina. While she was pretty laid back, he doubted that she would appreciate him being nosy and giving his opinion unwanted.

"It was nice how you helped Kataoka." he told her, instead.

"We all helped. Besides, while I don't completely get the friend thing, since I didn't really have any growing up, I do know that friends are suppose to help each other. I'm starting to get the feeling that if we're going to succeed with assassinating Korosensei, then it's really going to take all of us." Takina replied.

"You might have a point. In the end, we'll need to come up with some kind of plan with all of us." Nagisa agreed.

"That's going to be a little difficult given some members of our class."

Nagisa knew she was talking about Terasaka and his little group. Terasaka just didn't get along with anyone and Nagisa knew he would make it difficult every step of the way.

"We'll figure it out." Nagisa said.

"We kind of have to. I hate to think I'll die as a middle schooler." Takina replied.

She had enough problems without dying at her age.

After all...fifteen was already a crappy age without adding dying to the mix.

END

Kyandi: It really is difficult to tell whether your step-mother was being supportive and nice or just cold.

Takina: Everyone has their own way of showing love.

Kyandi: That's true, but can you really say that what your father is doing is love?

Takina: Says the woman whose father greats her with "Hey fatgirl.". Does he ever use your name.

Kyandi: No, and I see your point. My father insist that that's his equivalent of terms of endearment.

Takina: Yeah, I call bull.

Kyandi: And I call bull on your father.

Takina: Fair enough. Shall we move on?

Kyandi: Right, everyone enjoy and review.

Takina: We'll return as soon as possible.

Kyandi: Bye-bye!


End file.
